“And here lies the problem. Primarily for geopolitical reasons, the United States has enlisted Pakistan as an ally on three occasions: during the Cold War (1954–1972), the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan (1979–1989) and the war against terrorism (2001–present). In each instance, the U.S. motive for seeking a Pakistani alliance has been different from Pakistan’s reasons for accepting it.”

“…you could no longer run a country properly if the elites don’t understand technology in the same way they grasp economics or ideology or propaganda.”

“Nostalgia raises self-esteem which in turn heightens optimism.”

“Start by asking why it is that Healthcare.gov is not as good as Amazon.com or Kayak.com. …The deeper answer is that when we look at Kayak and Amazon, we are seeing the survivors that emerged from an intense tournament….Healthcare.gov did not emerge from this sort of competition…My sense is that what divides us from pundits like Brooks and Shields, and even from most economists, is the credit that we assign to market evolution rather than elite expertise as a process for solving problems.”

“the only method that has consistently demonstrated in the U.S. that it can humanely get people off welfare and into jobs was the workfare movement of the 1990s (which it did without increasing government costs, by the way).”

“America has gradually transformed from a society that merely has a strong and vibrant free market to a society that treats everything—including civic institutions, death, and friendship—as if it were a part of that market.”