30 Years Ago in Reason

June 1977

“Please don’t conclude that I’m urging you to break the law. Don’t even assume that I’m subtly suggesting it. I’m not. You can get into trouble for breaking the law. The risks involved are appropriate only for people who are desperate or unusually ambitious, and who can handle the risks emotionally.”
—Harry Browne, “Making the Most of Your Swiss Bank Account”

“If Hong Kong did not exist, it is unlikely that it could have been invented.…Could you imagine a British colony run by British ‘civil servants’ with a more or less doctrinal commitment to laissez faire, parked on the edge of a Communist superpower that effectively guarantees its existence, in the year of 1976, when by all canons of modern economics, such a place is impossible?”
—Mark Tier, “Hong Kong: An ‘Impossible Anachronism’ Does a Roaring Trade in Asia”