“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours and approvals–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.”  Ayn Rand

George Rebane

The International Policy Institute awards the annual Bastiat Prize and the Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism.  Last night in New York Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal placed first in the Bastiat Prize competition.  Second place was tied by Tim Harford of the Financial Times and freelance writer Jamie Whyte.  James Delingpole who blogs for telegraph.co.uk won the Online Journalism prize.  Delingpole writes –

Why does the Bastiat Prize matter so much? Because it’s about the only prize left which celebrates those true journalistic virtues of scepticism and inquiry which our libtard MSM [mainstream media] has all but abandoned in its eagerness to suck up to whichever bunch of statist shysters currently happen to be in power. It’s about free markets, about small government, about liberty.

Hard to add anything here.  (H/T to two RR readers for this material.)