Topic: Crisis

Crisis, Economic Education, Economic Trends

Older Americans Should Be Anti-Lockdown Activists

– August 22, 2020

“The best policy on dealing with a virus – bolstering immunities among young people while protecting the vulnerable – is the freedom to behave rationally. Any other policy risks the kind of carnage we see all around us today, even as the virus has wickedly and profoundly affected our oldest Americans.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education, Free Markets

Terrible Policies Possess Both Virulence and Prevalence

– August 21, 2020

“We have civilization and prosperity not because we are smart but because we permit the freedom to cooperate toward building smart social and economic institutions.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Authoritarianism, Central Banking, Crisis

Governments Are Faking It, and Copying Each Other

– August 20, 2020

“A mystery for months is how it is that so many governments in so many different places on earth could have adopted the same or very similar preposterous policies, no matter the threat level of the virus, and without firm evidence that interventions had any hope of being effective.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Free Markets, Government

This Is Not Australia

– August 20, 2020

“Our leadership must acknowledge the suffering of countless thousands of Australian citizens affected by measures taken to ‘defeat’ the virus. We need a collective plan that restores our civil and human rights and returns us to a liveable, albeit new normality. If we ever want to sing that inspiring Seekers song together again, then it’s time for all Australians to start thinking and acting collectively for the good of us all and for the future of this ‘lucky country.’” ~ Tania de Jong

Art and Culture, Authoritarianism, Crisis, Free Markets

Pathological and Parochial Altruism in the Age of Fear

– August 20, 2020

“A healthy altruism already resides in the concepts of liberty, free markets, free trade, and exchanges that are beneficial to each individual. If in the spirit of entrepreneurship, the defectors from the status quo, the disruptors and ingenious can rise up to challenge the “new normal” and break away from the cult of blind obedience and pathological altruism, then there is still hope.” ~ Lucio Saverio Eastman

Central Banking, Crisis, Monetary Policy

Can the Fed Reduce Inequality?

– August 18, 2020

“If the Fed aims to reduce inequality, it should use policies that are known to be effective. There is little scope for affecting inequality with monetary policy. Reducing banks’ regulatory burden reduces inequality by improving the lives of Americans with the lowest incomes.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan

Crisis, Economic Education, Free Markets

Mail Slowdowns Started 50 Years Before Trump

– August 18, 2020

“‘The post office has been run poorly for many, many decades,’ Trump declared last week. In a less histrionic era, the Postal Service’s failures could spur Congress to finally remove the roadblocks to private innovation in letter delivery. Instead, the coming delivery debacles may become the conspiratorial RussiaGate of the 2020 election.” ~ James Bovard

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education, Free Markets

Watchwords that Threaten Liberty

– August 17, 2020

“This does not mean that oppressions, injustices, and ‘privileges’ have not existed and, when present, should not be repealed. But it is necessary to comprehend that, at the end of the day, it is political power, through its legitimized threat and use of force, that has been and is behind virtually all such immoral practices. And that the ideas and ideals of classical liberalism have been and remain the only lasting answers to ending the real social and cultural ills that continue to plague parts of humanity around the world.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy

Fear Is a Viral Monster

– August 17, 2020

“If a large enough number of us can be convinced that an unseen, vile monster lurks in everyone else, the resulting widespread fear empowers government officials to do what government officials do best – and what they’ve done so horribly over the past five months: destroy.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Crisis, Economic Education, History

So Long Independence?

– August 17, 2020

“America might not become Amerika or the American Reich solely because of the 2020 euthanasia of its proprietor class, but an important check on extremism is fading fast, a fact apparently lost on its self-absorbed political class.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Central Banking, Crisis, Monetary Policy

ECB: On the Credit Wave towards Zombification

– August 17, 2020

“As in the planned economies, negative productivity gains and painful prosperity losses will be unavoidable. Because productivity gains are the basis for real wage increases, the benign long-term credit conditions of the ECB increasingly become a burden for the young people in Europe.” ~ Gunther Schnabl & Nils Sonnerberg

Crisis

When Your Intellectual Heroes Let You Down

– August 16, 2020

“The case against lockdowns is the obverse of the case for freedom itself. It seems unconscionable for any liberal mind to be wrong on this point. That so many have gone silent or even shown sympathy for lockdowns reveals just how tremendously confusing these times have been.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker