April 3, 2020 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Dear Friends, 

I hope all is well with you and yours during these critical times for our country and our world. 

AIER has become a leading voice for understanding during these times, helping to balance out the media-fueled panic that has gripped our country. I’ve been astonished at the attention we are getting in our efforts to bring some rationality to the many issues associated with the coronavirus and the economy-crushing response by so many governments. 

In fact, our book on the topic is now published: Coronavirus and Economic Crisis, edited by our researcher Peter C. Earle. You can buy it now from Amazon. A Kindle edition is coming soon. 

The main takeaways:

  • The lack of preparation in the U.S. for this has exposed the egregious failings of the regulatory state in every area: testing, research, hospital capacity, medical supplies, and medical services generally; 
  • The information dearth – the lack of on-the-ground facts due to testing failures – created a void filled by statistical models with wildly divergent predictions, the worst of which have been seized on by the media;
  • The response by many governments has not been intelligent but rather risk averse in the extreme and highly coercive, amounting to a giant yell for everyone to stop doing everything, contradicting the pleas of medical professionals and economists, thus fueling an epic collapse in employment and production; 
  • The stimulus packages intended to save the economy have been hijacked by political interests and pressure groups who are feeding at the public trough in brazen and highly politicized ways, and the same is true for the monetary response; 
  • The long-term solution to all the meltdowns we are seeing around us is to regain confidence in market signaling and the capacity of a free society to solve medical, social, and economic problems better than government power. 

The book includes writings from 24 writers, all of whom are experts in their respective fields. Though we live in dangerous times, you will find this book to be a source of light and hope. 

I will conclude with a thought that we all know but cannot stop thinking and saying: this will end. Then we deal with the carnage. Many things will change. That is an opportunity. We cannot give up the fight in these critical times. The one thing more powerful than a virus is an idea. We can do this. 

All the best, to you, 

Edward Peter Stringham

President, AIER

Edward Peter Stringham

Edward Peter Stringham

Edward Peter Stringham is the Davis Professor of Economic Organizations and Innovation at Trinity College, and Editor of the Journal of Private Enterprise. Stringham served as the President of the American Institute for Economic Research. He is editor of two books and author of more than 70 journal articles, book chapters, and policy studies. His work has been discussed in 15 of the top 20 newspapers in the United States and on more than 100 broadcast stations including MTV. Stringham is a frequent guest on BBC World, Bloomberg Television, CNBC, and Fox. Rise Global ranks Stringham as one of the top 100 most influential economists in the world.

He earned his B.A. from College of the Holy Cross in 1997, his Ph.D. from George Mason University in 2002. His book, Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life, is published by Oxford University Press.

 

 

Books by Edward Peter Stringham

View All Books

Get notified of new articles from Edward Peter Stringham and AIER.