Quote of the Day 30th August 2013

"The great danger to the consumer is the monopoly -- whether private or governmental. His most effective protection is free competition at home and free trade throughout the world. The consumer is protected from being exploited by one seller by the existence of another seller from whom he can buy and who is eager to sell to him. Alternative sources of supply protect the consumer far more effectively than all the Ralph Naders of the world."

(Milton Friedman)

Comments

Jim said…
Milton speaks a lot of sence here, he is right about the monopoly.

Though i would argue the bigest problem facing our economy at the moment is debt. We hit a "bust" cycle due to a boom caused by over inflated house market, interest rates being held artificially too low for too long, thus lots of cheap currency available to get into easy debt.

It just seems to me the recovery is based on using taxpayer currency to make it easier for buyers to buy into an over inflated housing market, keeping interest rates artificially low, making cheap currency available to get into easy debt.

You see debt was the cause of the problem, and debt is not the answer to it. I can see George Osbourne is only looking to boost house prices in time for 2015, but this is a very dangerous strategy, one the government will live to regret.

for an analogy:
Fact: There is a fire over there!
Government: pour on a gallon of petrol
Fact: the fire is bigger!
Government: pour on an oil drum full of petrol
Fact: its a much bigger fire now!
Government: empty a container truck of petrol onto it
Fact: now its pretty uncontrollable, its a huge fire
Government: can we get a cargo ship full of petrol here on the double please
2:19 pm
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