One of those disturbing tendencies in academic life is that there is a desire on the part of many in the name of open-mindedness to fall into a kind of relativistic denialism in which all positions are equally legitimate, all positions must be respected, and compromise must be entered into no matter what the starting point or reasonableness of the two parties.

All taxes discourage something. Why not discourage bad things like pollution rather than good things like working?

In politics, as in poetry, it is sometimes true that it is darkest before dawn.

The major challenge for the United States is whether it can become the first outward-looking, continental, nonimperialist power in history.

Deflation and secular stagnation are the risks of our time.

Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]?... I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that... I’ve always though that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City.

It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets.