Topic: Crisis

Can We Talk About Something Else Now?

– June 12, 2020

“We might, as the protesters I heard on the radio, remember that other things matter too, that one type of risk must be balanced by the harms of another, that risk-mitigating policies be proportionate to the damage, that few things warrant the wholesale closing of commerce and civil society.” ~ Joakim Book

Art and Culture, Crisis, Free Markets

The Day First-World Problems Became Real

– June 12, 2020

“We’ve learned that government can and will destroy our prosperity and rights under the smallest pretext. We can no longer take our freedom and opportunities for granted. We must work unrelentingly to get back what we had and make sure we lockdown our governments so that nothing like this will ever happen again.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Crisis, Economic Theory, Fiscal Policy, Philosophy, Policy, Sound Banking

Free Down Payments and Subsidized Mortgages are Not Social Justice

– June 11, 2020

“Despite 50 years of debacles, politicians are still glorified for pretending that free downpayments and subsidized mortgages are “magic beans” that multiply social justice in America.” ~ James Bovard

Crisis, Education, Healthcare

It Is Time To Call Shenanigans!

– June 11, 2020

“If scientists truly knew nothing about SARS-COV-2 then they should have advocated doing nothing until it was well enough understood to proffer effective policies lest they inadvertently contribute to its spread.” ~ Robert Wright

Crisis, Economic Education, Regulation

The Fatal Conceit of COVID-19 Epidemic Models

– June 10, 2020

“The epidemiological world has published countless articles and studies warning against the tendency and ease with which one can overestimate Ro. We have fallen prey to this tendency once again.” Gregory van Kipnis

Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Unemployment

Let the Unemployment Benefits Expire

– June 10, 2020

“The bottom line is that everyone needs to take a deep breath and let the unemployment insurance expansions expire. People, sensible adults that they are, will then naturally return to their lives and jobs.” ~ Vernonique de Rugy

Crisis, Policy, Regulation

Don’t Defund Police, Make them Part of the Market

– June 10, 2020

“There is an argument regularly doled out by police unions which states that without the wide swath of protections that police officers face, they would be more reluctant to investigate, pursue, and apprehend wrongdoers. If so, there are ways to fix that problem.”~Peter C. Earle

Crisis

World Health Organization Walks Back Claim about Asymptomatic Spread

– June 9, 2020

“It’s long past time to stop this pretend game. Go back to normal life. Let science take its course. And above all else, allow medical professionals to do their work without the reckless and dangerous assistance from politicians who seem to know less about disease mitigation than everyone else.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Crisis, Education, Public Choice and Public Policy

Masking Kids: Safety without Efficacy

– June 9, 2020

“It is time to look beyond the symbolic measures we are taking to protect ourselves from the virus, and to start thinking about the costs and benefits of schools reopening more realistically. Come fall, schools should be open without any extreme social distancing measures in place.” Michael Thomas and Diana Thomas

Crisis, Economic Theory

Professor Lockdown Now Claims to Have Saved 3.1 Million Lives

– June 9, 2020

“Whether used by Imperial College or Trump, this line of argument falters as social science because it assumes the validity of the very same forecast it purports to demonstrate. Rather than testing the causal inference that lockdowns reduced the COVID death rate, it takes their own forecasted death rate as a given and then purports to calculate the number of lives saved by simple subtraction from its own model.” ~ Phil Magness

Crisis, Energy, Environmentalism

The Environmentalist’s Dream Came True

– June 9, 2020

“The environmentalists had a field day during the corona pandemic. The anti-human policies they have called for, protested for, disrupted societies and other people’s lives for, were suddenly implemented en masse, albeit on a temporary basis. Think of it as a trial for green policies.” ~ Joakim Book

Crisis, Economic Education, History, Philosophy

Tragedies of Our Time: Pandemic, Planning, and Racial Politics

– June 8, 2020

“The magnitude and depth of what has actually been experienced in declines in production and rises in unemployment have one and only one primary and singular source: the federal and especially state government-ordered shutdowns across the country.” ~ Richard Ebeling