One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

The Soviet experience was much worse than experts in the West had thought. That discovery had a tremendous impact both on the intellectual community and on the public at large.

The only reason free markets have a ghost of a chance is that they are so much more efficient than any other form of organization.

You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do.

There have been unions based on gold or silver, but not on fiat money - money tempted to inflate - put out by politically independent entities.

If you spend your own money on yourself, you care how much you spend and how well you spend it. If you spend your own money on someone else, you care how much you spend, but you don't care how well it is spent. If you spend someone else's money on yourself, you don't care how much you spend, but you do care how well it is spent. And finally, if you spend someone else's money on someone else, you don't care how much you spend, and you don't care how well it is spent. That is government.

We economists don't know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can't sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. It's the same with oil or gas.