Topic: Crisis

Lockdowns Do Not Control the Coronavirus: The Evidence

– December 19, 2020

“The use of universal lockdowns in the event of the appearance of a new pathogen has no precedent. It has been a science experiment in real time, with most of the human population used as lab rats. The costs are legion. The question is whether lockdowns worked to control the virus in a way that is scientifically verifiable. Based on the following studies, the answer is no.” ~ AIER Staff

Crisis, Healthcare, Science

Is Covid a High Risk to Younger Adults?

– December 18, 2020

“Using actual data – and even assuming that all excess deaths in the 25-44 cohort are caused by Covid, and even if we annualize the authors’ excess-death figure to get excess deaths in this cohort of 28,800 – the chance that Covid will kill any randomly chosen member of this cohort is a minuscule 0.0329 percent.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government

2020 Was Not The Worst Year Ever. Not Even Close.

– December 18, 2020

“Two thousand and twenty has…underperformed, to say the least. We were promised flying cars, and all we got were mask mandates. Has 2020 been the worst year ever, though? Not even close.” ~ Art Carden

Authoritarianism, Books, Crisis

Book Review: Jeffrey Tucker’s Thoroughly Excellent ‘Liberty or Lockdown’

– December 18, 2020

“The author who always knew is most right and most compelling when he calls for the countering of ‘the brutalism of the lockdowns.’ That’s the only answer. No more lockdowns. Never again. Any other argument fails.” ~ John Tamny

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government

Will 21 Club’s Demise Finally Awaken People To New York City’s Slow Suffocation?

– December 17, 2020

“The problem was that New York’s governor and the mayor of the world’s greatest city decided they would do the thinking of the world’s most talented people, and also the protecting. Their arrogance was and is astonishing.” ~ John Tamny

Crisis, Education, Regulation

The Teachers Unions are Keeping the Schools Closed

– December 17, 2020

“At this point, confusion or debate over school openings is completely unfounded. We knew of the extremely low risk of Covid-19 for children in April.” ~ Amelia Janaskie

Classical Liberalism, Crisis, Education

Cheers for College Football’s Victory over Covid-19 Fear

– December 17, 2020

“The 2020 college football season reminds us of truths that too many Americans have forgotten in the long months since March: Sports and other “nonessential” activities make life richer and better; a person or a society can be alive and not really be living; sheltering in place until a governor or scientist gives an “all clear” is the very opposite of America’s promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;” and living, like college football in many ways, is intertwined with contact, connection, community, culture and commerce.” ~ Alan W. Dowd

Crisis, Economic History

The Decimal Point that Blew Up the World

– December 16, 2020

“A terminological confusion, a misplaced decimal point, a one-word error in data description, and a massive amount of arrogant presumptions about how to control a virus set in motion a series of events that turned our great and prosperous country into a disaster of confusion, demoralization, foregone medical services, closed businesses, wrecked arts and education, and long bread lines. The lockdowners who created this appalling disaster, the people who turned our trust into betrayal and a blizzard of statistical baloney, need to look at the science and data as they stand and come clean.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Crisis, Economic Education, Policy

Did State Reopenings (and Closings) Have Little Effect on Spending?

– December 16, 2020

“Vaccines alone cannot thaw frozen state economies unless and until they in some way encourage governors to reopen. If any lockdown-prone governors do reconsider their orders, there is a distinguished team of Ivy League economists who stand ready to advise that reopening closed economies could make little “immediate” difference. That would be terrible advice.” ~ Alan Reynolds

Crisis, Government, Science

The FDA’s Deadly Caution

– December 16, 2020

“Any discussion of the lives saved by the FDA must include estimates of the lives lost due to that very same agency. Two thousand Americans are dying each and every day while there’s a savior in a syringe sitting in a warehouse ready to protect us.” ~ David R. Henderson & Charles L. Hooper

Crisis, Economic Education, Government

The State Negative Externality Problem

– December 16, 2020

“A smart, strong, John Marshall-type chief justice, as opposed to a weasley Taney-like one, would have used the Texas case to clarify the problem of state negative externalities vis-a-vis presidential elections. How many state and federal laws and constitutions can be violated before somebody has the authority to do something about it, and what, precisely, can be done?” ~ Robert E. Wright

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government

Covid and The Rise of Cage Keeper Democracy

– December 15, 2020

“The Covid pandemic is fueling many politicians’ passion for destroying Americans’ freedom based on the flimsiest pretexts. Thus far, politicians have paid no price for their constitutional demolitions. The only certainty is that much of the media and legions of activists will cheer the next lockdown.” ~ James Bovard