There are severe limits to the good that the government can do for the economy, but there are almost no limits to the harm it can do.
Milton FriedmanPositive economics is in principle independent of any particular ethical position or normative judgment...In short, positive economics is or can be an "objective" science.
Milton FriedmanIf you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
Milton FriedmanThe Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government.
Milton Friedman