Daily news from the American Institute for Economic Research: stories, research, and articles touching on economics, politics, culture, education, policy, opinion, technology, markets, healthcare, regulation, trends, and much more.
AIER cuts through the noise of partisan shouting matches with objective, scientific research and principles that lead to sustained economic prosperity and human flourishing. Striving toward a world where all people enjoy the benefits of a truly free society.
King Canute and the Virus Tide
“I doubt seriously that our arrogant rulers intended to teach the lesson that King Canute taught his subjects. But teach they have, nonetheless.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker
Initial Claims for Unemployment Benefits Drop Below One Million
Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell in the latest week but unemployment remains very high, suggesting complete economic recovery may be a long way off.
Consequences of Lockdowns: The Case of Maine
“The evidence available in March suggested the vast majority of people would not suffer severe illness from the virus. This should have led state leaders to focus limited resources on protecting the most vulnerable in society. However Gov. Mills opted to shut down the entire state.” ~ AIER Staff
On This Day, The Berlin Wall Began to Rise
“Modern Germany is deceptively unified––so much so that it has become easy to relegate the cautionary tale of the GDR to the history books. But the ideology that gave rise to the Berlin Wall persists around the world. For as happily as we celebrate the day it came down, the day it rose must always stand as a testament to how easily freedom can fall victim to absolutism.” ~ Fiona Harrigan
The Art of the Shakedown
“Looking ahead to a more authoritarian future, will old-fashioned lobbying be enough to secure a measure of business freedom any more? What new steps will businesses need to take in the future to protect themselves from presidents who, instead of the Art of the Deal, prefer the Art of the Shakedown?” ~ Raymond C. Niles
Against the Bambi Syndrome: Nature Is Not Nice
“Nature may be pristine, but nature is not friendly. With climate change making nature even less secure, we would do well to let technology and global economic growth protect us. With wealth and technology, we can both tame it and protect against its worst excesses.” ~ Joakim Book
Everyday Prices Rise for a Third Month Led by Gas and Phone Service
AIER’s Everyday Price Index rose 0.5 percent in July, pushed higher by gas and wireless phone services.
Don’t Live Your Life In a Bubble
“If you want a future, your generation needs to start getting the best minds behind leading. Your future and the future generations of humans now depend on it.” ~ Roger W. Koops
Authoritarianism in Auckland
“New Zealand looks and feels like paradise. Sadly, thanks to brutal and deeply incompetent political leadership, that paradise is lost, lost to the superstitions of the COVID faith that power, police, and adoring news coverage can scare a pathogen to go away and stay away.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker
Drop in Small-Business Optimism Reflects Renewed Uncertainty
Small-business confidence fell in July as rising COVID-19 cases, political turmoil, and persistent consumer apprehension smother hopes for a rapid rebound.
The New Fascism
“Tamny is giving us a heroic book just in time to lead this movement. We have been suffering not from a medical crisis but from a political and economic and institutional crisis. We have undergone a vast breakdown of moral, educational, intellectual and journalistic standards.” ~ George Gilder
How Government “Cures” Drive Out Real Cures
“A government that suppresses debate and wants to funnel billions towards politically connected firms will discredit all challengers to their favored solutions. In the name of what they define as ‘the science,’ the discovery process of real science is suppressed. Science suppressors are part of an illiberal movement whose members, in the words of Jeffrey Tucker, are ‘enemies of freedom and human rights.'”
Funding American Law Enforcement
“If any legitimate public service (like the rule of law and law enforcement) fails, it should be mended, not ended, reformed, not scorned. Indeed, that has been the general (and positive) trend in American law and law enforcement over the past century.” ~ Richard M. Salsman
Fact-Checking Fauci
“The pro-lockdown position favored by Fauci and several US media outlets has become a matter of ideological commitment. Whether they are doing so to rationalize the costs we have already incurred from this disastrous approach or to further politicize the pandemic response for a variety of electoral and partisan purposes, they have embraced a pro-lockdown stance that is unchained from any evidence or clear data.” ~ Phillip W. Magness
Self-Censorship and Despotism Over the Mind
“Right now, it is still predominantly the force of social pressures that the cancel culture and identity politics warriors are successfully using in the arenas of education, the arts and entertainment, the media, and industry. But the next logical step will be to move from social pressures to the use of the full political power of the government.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling
What Did the “Stimulus Plan” Stimulate?
“The only conceivable rationale for repeating the latest of many failed experiments with fiscal stimulus (borrowing from Peter to pay Paul) might be to ‘stimulate demand.’ But we just tried that. It didn’t work. It never works.” ~ Alan Reynolds
We Need a Principled Anti-Lockdown Movement
“This movement, whether it is called anti-lockdown or just plain liberalism, must reject the wickedness and compulsion of this current moment in American life. It needs to counter the brutalism of lockdowns. It needs to speak and act with humane understanding and high regard for social functioning under freedom, and the hope for the future that comes with it.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker
Experience From Other Countries Show Lockdowns Don’t Work
“For months we have hailed countries like Taiwan and South Korea for their model responses that kept the virus at bay while inflicting relatively minimal restrictions on society. Advocating for draconian lockdown measures while still praising these countries is not only blind to the evidence but also comes from a position of privilege and hypocrisy.” ~ Ethan Yang
