Remarkable interview by CNN's Christian Amanpour

I can entirely understand how Brexit happened. What I find a bit bizarre is how there seems to be no introspection as to why anyone wants to leave the EU. It's like an article of faith despite its "democratic deficit" that you'd have to be a racist prick to want to leave.

I confess I very rarely watch CNN, but it's incredible how bad Christian Amanpour comes across not only as an interviewer but in how poorly she prepared for this interview with Daniel Hannan (knowing little if anything about him):

Amanpour writes a follow up article that James Taranto squishes in the WSJ.

Freemarkets != "right wing"

In the same way too many people confuse crony capitalism with capitalism(fee.org) - with discouraging examples from India and Poland.

The case against military interventions...

"Capitalism ALWAYS wins" (SovereignMan):

Rather than fight the war, the US government would have been a lot better off saying, “Oh you want to be Communist? Wonderful! You go ahead and enjoy that, and give us a call in 20 years once you’re totally impoverished…”

It would have saved a hell of a lot of time, money, and lives.

Capitalism always wins because people want the comfort and lifestyle that become possible when talented people have the incentive to work hard and innovate.

Can "Free Countries" emerge from "Free Cities"?

Something to watch: the Free Cities Initiative (via Reason).

Turnabout is fair play

This is heartening to see (NationalPost):

All too often, corporations, concerned about the potential damage to their bottom lines from any “controversy,” kowtow to media-savvy radical environmentalists. Thus the lawsuit brought three years ago by Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products against Greenpeace for “defamation, malicious falsehood and intentional interference with economic relations” represented a rare display of business backbone.

Greenpeace is still trying desperately to avoid its day in Canadian court, but now Resolute, under its arrow-straight CEO Richard Garneau, has upped the ante. On Tuesday, the company launched another suit — against Greenpeace and STAND (the environmental NGO formerly known as ForestEthics) — under U.S. anti-racketeering laws.

Greenpeace has been greenmailing companies for years - the only thing that's surprising that it's taken until now for someone to realize that it's not actually about influencing how companies operate but extracting money from them.

"As Venezuela craters..."

True: "there is nothing laughable about the almost incomprehensible degree of suffering that socialism has heaped upon humanity wherever it’s been tried" (HumanProgress). Read the whole thing.

Science: "Complaining Is Terrible for You"

It turns out having a negative outlook on life tends to have a negative impact on your physical and mental health (Inc). I'd say this was related to the last post.

2016: The Year Poverty Fell to a New Low

It's interesting to watch the differing world views being expressed in the media on the same data sometimes (HumanProgress). Should we celebrate or envy success? It would seem there are many who believe not only that it should be envied, but it should be actively taken away.

Democratic socialism?

Putting lipstick on a pig of a very old idea:

More here (HumanProgress): Socialism and Self-Delusion