Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse - for both the addict and the rest of us.

Politicians will always spend every penny of tax raised and whatever else they can get away with.

Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.

A society that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality or freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom. On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality. Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today's less well off to become tomorrow's rich, and in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a richer and fuller life.

Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can take place unless both parties do benefit.

Germany's problem, in part, is that it went into the euro at the wrong exchange rate that overvalued the deutsche mark.

The euro is going to be a big source of problems, not a source of help.