May 23, 2012
Instinctively, we look for people's motives. We need to know whom we can trust and whom we can't. We're especially skeptical of business because we know business wants our money.
May 16, 2012
When my wife was a liberal, she complained that libertarian reasoning is coldhearted. Since markets produce winners and losers — and many losers did nothing wrong — market competition is cruel.
May 9, 2012
A child leaving home alone for the first time takes a risk. So does the entrepreneur who opens a new business. I no more want government to prevent us from doing these things than I want it to keep us in padded cells.
May 2, 2012
The human brain is torn between simple intuition and the more complex hard work of figuring out the unintended consequences of any policy. Who doesn't like thinking about trees and greenery and happy animals?
Apr 25, 2012
Instinct tells us to fear poison. If our ancestors were not cautious about what they put in their mouths, they would not have survived long enough to produce us.
Apr 18, 2012
We spend too much time waiting for orders — and money — from Washington. The collapse of the housing bubble gave politicians a license to do what they wanted to do all along: spend.
Apr 11, 2012
I’m suspicious of superstitions, like astrology or the belief that “green jobs will fix the environment and the economy.” I understand the appeal of such beliefs.
Apr 4, 2012
Pssst. Want to buy some Stossels? They’re my own currency with my face on them.