Topic: Crisis

Will the Political Class Be Held Liable For What They’ve Done?

– May 21, 2020

“There is no way that politicians can compensate American citizens for all the damage they have inflicted in this pandemic. This COVID shutdown catastrophe should be a permanent black mark against the political class and the experts who sanctified each and every sacrifice.” ~ James Bovard

Crisis, Free Markets

Pandemics and the Liberal Path

– May 21, 2020

“What is needed now more than ever is an immediate restoration of free trade, free enterprise, freedom of movement, commercial rights, and human rights.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Crisis, Economic Trends

Did the Lockdown Save Lives?

– May 19, 2020

No matter how much we try to spin this in our heads, no matter how much we want to believe that something good has come out of this catastrophe, we are all going to have someday to deal with the terrible but likely reality that it was all for naught.

Crisis, International

What Sweden Can Teach Us About the Economics of Pandemics

– May 19, 2020

Sweden will have avoided the lion’s share of the enormous economic, personal, and social tragedies that societies under lockdown have imposed on themselves. From this perspective, perhaps Sweden’s strategy should be neither feared nor maligned, but emulated.

Crisis, Economic Trends

The Coming Flood of FOIA

– May 18, 2020

Without detailed knowledge of how specific elected officials thought through the coronavirus scare, knowledge only possible with La FOIA Grande, voters are essentially voting blind and will know no more about the two candidates they will be asked to choose between this November than they would about a randomly selected one.

Crisis, Economic Trends

Was Lockdown Architect and Theoretical Physicist Neil Ferguson Morally Right To Defy the Lockdown?

– May 18, 2020

On May 5, 2020, Ferguson resigned from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies after openly defying the lockdown multiple times in March and April.

Crisis, History

Is this Really a Post-Liberal Era?

– May 17, 2020

Liberals of all types should not despair and feel they are like Sir Edward Grey watching the lights of liberal civilisation go out all over Europe: if they understand better where we are then the new state of affairs could end up being an improvement over the way they have been for the last two to three decades.

Crisis, Regulation

Life Inside a Steel Trap

– May 16, 2020

None of today’s prominent political figures is a thug on the scale of Rand’s Dr. Ferris, but the thugs are out there watching and waiting. Yet it’s not inevitable that the jaws will continue to tighten.

Crisis, History

The 2006 Origins of the Lockdown Idea

– May 15, 2020

So far as anyone can tell, the intellectual machinery that made this mess was invented 14 years ago, and not by epidemiologists but by computer-simulation modelers. It was adopted not by experienced doctors – they warned ferociously against it – but by politicians.

Crisis, Economic Theory

We Don’t Need One Big Plan to End the Lockdown

– May 15, 2020

The transition back to normal life involves the coordination of the disparate and often-incompatible plans of billions of minds–and if we wish for that coordination to make the best use of knowledge in society, we are making a mistake if we are looking for a plan.

Crisis

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Decision Is Brilliant

– May 14, 2020

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court decided by a 4-3 vote on Wednesday May 13, 2020 to strike down the state’s “Safer at Home” order, its COVID-19 economic lockdown in other words. It did so completely, immediately, and unequivocally.

Crisis

Most Places are Not New York: A Look Through the COVID-19 Data

– May 14, 2020

Economic activity in one country is dependent upon economic activity of its trading partners. Trade makes us rich because it allows each of us to provide value and offer it to others in the market. If half of the world is in lockdown, we are all poorer for it.