Topic: Crisis

Good Reasons to Doubt the Estimate of COVID-19 Deaths

– March 18, 2020

Many popular accounts mistake an implausible upper-bound estimate for the most likely outcome. The underlying study actually suggests the number of deaths will be much lower.

Crisis, Video

The Economy Could Indeed Roar Back (Video)

– March 18, 2020

If we come out of this, it will be due to markets. FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto hosted me and tax attorney Rebecca Walser to discuss how crucial it is for the financial markets to remain open and how the government shutdown will affect small businesses.

Crisis

If You Bail Out Everyone, You Bail Out No One

– March 18, 2020

It’s sad any of this needs to be said or written, but it cannot be stressed enough that government outlays are a consequence of growth that’s already taken place. The federal budget in the U.S. is the largest in the world, and the U.S. Treasury ca …

Crisis

An Epistemic Crisis

– March 17, 2020

The ray of hope is that reliable tests are going to be distributed widely in the coming days, and that will solve the great epistemic crisis. There is hope and light at the end of this very dark tunnel of ignorance.

Crisis

A Politically Fueled Panic Is Not a Good Plan

– March 17, 2020

We seem to assume that the human race is so evolved, that we’re so civilized now compared to our cave-dwelling forebearers. Until there’s something like a natural disaster or pandemic to start frenzied hoarding and panic.

Crisis, Economic Trends

The Anatomy of the Crash of 2020

– March 17, 2020

Whatever you think about the virus threat, and even if you think all this is justified in the name of stopping the spread, let’s not be confused about what drove this disaster from the beginning: the fear that politics would attack commercial society at its root.

Crisis, Economic Trends

The Parasites Exacerbating COVID-19

– March 16, 2020

The so-far easy acceptance of the government’s medieval reaction to the spread of a not very lethal virus to a vanishingly small percentage of the population suggests that universities are not helping Americans to overcome the many behavioral biases they inherited from their cavemen ancestors.

Crisis, Economic Trends

To Kill Markets Is the Worst Possible Plan

– March 16, 2020

This whole ghastly episode could become another teaching moment in misguided and damaging government policies that markets, once again, successfully endured and survived.

Crisis, Economic Theory

The Top Economic Takeaway of the Coronavirus Panic

– March 16, 2020

Ultimately, our wealth consists chiefly in the ongoing willingness and ability of millions of strangers to work for us daily. Any obstacle to large numbers of people performing their daily jobs means hardship for us all.

Crisis, Economic Trends

Those Shelves Wouldn’t Be Empty If We Hadn’t Stopped “Capitalism”

– March 15, 2020

This is a difficult time for a lot of people, and it’s understandable and admirably humane to want to help others in their time of need. We aren’t doing them any favors, however, by saying that they won’t be allowed to pay very much for a bottle of hand sanitizer they can’t get anyway.

Crisis, Economic Trends

Celebrate the Heroes Who Stay Open

– March 14, 2020

I smiled and said thank you to every employee stocking shelves, running the cash registers, mailing my packages, taking my dry cleaning, and selling me bleach wipes. Blessed are those who eschew the crazy demand to “shut down everything” and instead continue to serve the people.

Crisis, Video

Stringham on Economic and Financial Stress (video)

– March 14, 2020

I’m pleased to be facing a high demand right now to get on the media and make comments on the continuing market turmoil. Here is a recent appearance on Fox.