Topic: Crisis

A Pandemic of Ignorance

– February 16, 2021

“Putting the lessons of political economy together (especially along with some elementary knowledge of statistical tricks) would have allowed Americans to better assess policymakers’ claims about Covid-19 transmission and the best ways to mitigate it and hence peacefully to resist unprecedented policies of dubious constitutionality and little scientific merit.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Crisis, Economic Education, Monetary Policy

Monetary Policy in a Pandemic

– February 12, 2021

“The Fed’s new lending programs were not very helpful, and they come at a potentially high cost. Insofar as they were designed to allocate credit, as opposed to merely providing liquidity, they amount to an expansion of the Fed’s mandate. And, although the extent of the Fed’s credit allocation was limited this time, it has set a dangerous precedent, which risks subjecting the Fed to even more political influence going forward.” ~ William J. Luther

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government

Would You Support the Lockdowns If It Meant Losing Your Own Job?

– February 11, 2021

“Belief in the corona-religion is thin, but much worse, it’s gutless. People believe as long their jobs and their businesses aren’t being destroyed. Twenty or one hundred years ago they wouldn’t have been so sanguine. Let’s never stop reminding them of this truth.” ~ John Tamny

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy

Why the UK Government Now Must, But Won’t, Abandon Lockdown

– February 11, 2021

“Were it to be capable of learning from its ‘achievement,’ the Government should now self-consciously abandon the policy aimed at the entire population, the most important part of which would be to end lockdown, tiers, and all such general restrictions. But this would require the Government to acknowledge that its policy has been a mistake from the outset, and the general lack of capacity the Government has shown includes a lack of capacity to make such an acknowledgement.” ~ David Campbell

Crisis, Healthcare, Science

Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence

– February 11, 2021

“The predominant conclusion is that face masks have a very important role in places such as hospitals, but there exists very little evidence of widespread benefit for members of the public (adults or children) as well as evidence that masking is truly an ineffectual way to manage pandemic-related spread of viral disease. Our view is that masks as they are worn now, and the masks that are in use, offer zero protection. They can be viewed as ineffective while others consider them as being better than nothing but without evidence to support that view.” ~ AIER Contributing Authors

Crisis, Healthcare, Science

Are Mask Mandates in Violation of Federal Law?

– February 10, 2021

“The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was established, in part, to put forth uniform standards based upon scientific justification for use. There are no uniform standards when it comes to mask mandates, just as there is no scientific justification. But, since most of the actions that have been taken since March of 2020 have been in violation of the US Constitution itself, why should we expect that to change now?” ~ Roger W. Koops

Crisis, Economic Theory, International

Lockdowns Have Devastated the Global Poor

– February 10, 2021

“Lockdowns affect the global poor as well as the global elite and it seems that the poorer countries have seen a dangerous decline in living standards which will have lasting consequences that are a public crisis in and of themselves. It should now be abundantly clear that economic hardship is not a minor inconvenience and action must be taken to alleviate existing damage and to prevent the further exacerbation of existing calamity.” ~ Ethan Yang

Crisis, Economic Education, Free Markets

Price-gouged and Happy About It

– February 9, 2021

“When the anti–price gouging law is in effect, being able to buy a necessity here is a matter of timing: being on store premises at or shortly after a shipment arrives. Then you can buy it, and not even at the market price, but at the pre-emergency price enforced by the government. Everyone else is out of luck.” ~ Jon Sanders

Crisis, Healthcare, Science

How a Virus Was Used To Transform a Free Country — Part 2

– February 9, 2021

“As Americans grow increasingly more desperate, the government continues to restrict peoples’ options. The CARES Act epitomized the tenet of redistribution of wealth, growing the numbers of Americans dependent upon the government, and vastly increasing the size and power of government.” ~ Sandy Szwarc

Crisis, History

Don’t Cry for Donald McNeil

– February 8, 2021

“It appears that the New York Times found McNeil irresistible in the search for more traffic or for a new experiment in totalitarianism, or something else I do not know. I only know that he was a main rhetorical driver of the lockdowns in the United States. Whether it was his initiative or not, ideas matter and his ideas in this case mattered a great deal.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

The TSA’s New Mask Mandate

– February 8, 2021

“Can the TSA reform its searches and other procedures so that its own employees avoid getting denounced as ‘Typhoid Marys?’ Is ‘social distancing’ from boneheaded enforcement agents asking too much? Alas, it is difficult to expect reasonable policies from an agency that still seems inspired by one of its first mottoes: ‘Dominate. Intimidate. Control.'” ~ James Bovard

Crisis, Healthcare, Science

I Can’t Stop Wondering About Covid-19

– February 8, 2021

“Why on all matters Covid do so many otherwise sensible, appropriately skeptical, and numerate people – people who understand the necessity of trade-offs, the reality of unintended consequences, and the dangers of government power – lose their judgment and remain in the ranks of the hysterical masses who treat Covid as the existential threat that it most certainly is not? I can’t stop wondering why.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux