I would say that in this world, the greatest source of inequality has been special privileges granted by government.

The major basis for my opposition to marijuana prohibition has not been how badly it's worked, the fact that it's produced much more harm than good - it has been primarily a moral reason: I don't think the state has any more right to tell me what to put into my mouth than it has to tell me what can come out of my mouth.

It doesn't worry me a bit that China and Japan hold so much US debt. In a way, it seems foolish for them to do it because they get lower returns than they might elsewhere. But that is their business.

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.

Americans know very little about social statistics, but I am not sure that it's important that Americans know about social statistics.

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.