Friday Hodgepodge

Notable Commentary

"Inventors will heed the lesson about what befalls the person who invents a better mousetrap, and antitrust enforcers and judges can freely decide if one is charging too much for the fruits of one's inventive labors." -- Adam Mossoff, in "Huawei Is the Only Winner After the Qualcomm Decision" at RealClear Markets.

The Smoot-Hawley tarrifs exacerbated the Great Depression. The effects of Trump's are starting to be felt, according to Richard Salsman. (Image available from Library of Congress, via Wikipedia, unrestricted.)

"For decades, U.S. tax and regulatory policies have suffocated and gutted American manufacturing, thereby artificially increasing offshore competitiveness and American importation of offshore products; instead of admitting their errors and changing their policies, U.S. politicians and policymakers blamed Japan (in the 1980s) and China (since the 1990s) for being so pro-manufacturing." -- Richard Salsman, in "Why are Trump's Non-Deals on Trade So Surprising?" at The Daily Capitalist.

"'[T]his time will be different' ... are the most repeated and regretted words in market history." -- Richard Salsman, in "Why the Yield Curve's Predictive Power 'Puzzles' Economists" at The Daily Capitalist.

"If 18-year-olds can decide whether or not to assume the risks of major surgery or serving in the military, they should also be able to decide whether or not to assume the risks of smoking." -- Paul Hsieh, in "If 18-Year-Olds Can Fight for Their Country, They Should Be Able to Smoke a Cigarette" at Forbes.

"[W]hatever the actual terms and merits of President Donald Trump's proposal, we need to question the diplomatic article of faith that Palestinian statehood is necessary for peace." -- Elan Journo, in "What Would a Palestinian State Actually Look Like?" at The Jerusalem Post.

"We're censoring ourselves daily, from powerful leftist-run social media and tech companies punishing us for challenging their anti-Western, pro-Islam agenda, to leftists across our culture crusading against speech that they hate, which they call 'hate speech', to conservatives placing 'respect' for religion above necessary criticism of Islam, to the worst censorship of all, self-censorship." -- Bosch Fawstin, in "If We Act as if Free Speech Is Over, It Will Be" at FrontPage Magazine.

-- CAV