Topic: Crisis

Crisis, Economic Education, Economic Trends, Policy

The Sordid History of Scam Science

– July 17, 2020

“We have to return to teaching people how to research and think for themselves and not just mindlessly jump on #bandwagons while falling for gross rhetorical tricks.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Crisis, Education

Who Should Be on Trump’s New C-19 Advisory Commission?

– July 17, 2020

“The whole country is wallowing in myth-driven panic and confusion, and the political class is doing nothing to fix that. Media certainly isn’t helping. It’s perhaps a forlorn hope that Trump himself could get smart, show a bit of humility, and press the reset button.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Central Banking, Crisis, Fiscal Policy

Sham Bailout Statistics Shroud Shutdown Tyranny

– July 16, 2020

“There is no reason to assume that Trump’s policies are better than his PPP data. Since the onset of the pandemic, both political parties and officials at all levels of government have often performed dismally. The biggest mistake Americans could make would be to permit politicians to absolve themselves now by giving away more of other people’s money.’ ~ James Bovard

Crisis, History

The New York Times Revives Its Grim Past

– July 16, 2020

“The news reporting and editorial policies of the New York Times today remind me of 1932 and the way in which journalism is being used to push out dogma over truth, selective facts over full and balanced coverage, ideology over tolerance, propaganda over diversity of opinion, and an aggressive political agenda over humane and careful journalism. It seems out of control at this point.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Art and Culture, Authoritarianism, Crisis

The Lockdowns Are Killing the Arts

– July 14, 2020

“Governments declared arts to be nonessential, dispensable, abolishable. It’s the biggest attack on art and beauty possibly since the iconoclasm of the 16th century, when mobs sacked churches, tore out paintings, and melted candlesticks in bonfires. Back then the motivation was to purify the world of sin. Now we think we are purifying the world of disease.” ~ Jeffrey A. Tucker

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Education, Policy

The Dangers of Keeping the Schools Closed

– July 13, 2020

“Medical experts who support school closures more generally clarify that they are a tool to be considered at the beginning of a pandemic, not seven months in. COVID-19 poses a far lesser risk to children for both death and infection. Closing schools will probably spare some schoolchildren from infection. Whether it will be enough to justify what we may have to sacrifice is another question entirely.” ~ Ethan Yang

Crisis, Free Markets, Policy

Who Is Making Decisions about Our Lives

– July 13, 2020

“What reason is there to trust that These People who never look past the next election – and who always ignore consequences that are difficult to see if these consequences are spread over large numbers of individuals – are making a prudently considered trade-off between the lockdown’s costs and its benefits?” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Crisis, Economic Education, Healthcare

What Economists Can Teach Epidemiologists

– July 11, 2020

“Hysterical, wildly off-the-mark forecasts about COVID-19 will ultimately cause more harm than good, and find their origins in the same set of snags which regularly trip up econometric forecasts. In the epidemiological version, instead of predicting a new Great Depression, they brought an artificial depression, a growing spate of coercive masking initiatives, school closures, and the lockdowns — which quite possibly filled the powderkeg that was ignited by the killing of George Floyd.” ~ Peter C. Earle

Crisis, Healthcare, History, Video

When Will the Madness End?

– July 10, 2020

“We’ve learned throughout this ordeal that despite our technology, our knowledge, our history of building prosperity and peace, we are no smarter than our ancestors and, by some measures, not as smart as our parents and grandparents. The experience with COVID has caused a mass reversion to the superstitions and panics that sporadically defined the human experience of ages past.” ~ Jeffrey A. Tucker

Central Banking, Crisis, Fiscal Policy

Brace Yourself for Bipartisan Spending Insanity

– July 10, 2020

“Sadly, we live in this world. And in this world, members of Congress and the administration don’t care about the size of government, any more than they care about most of our other freedoms.” ~ Veronique de Rugy

Crisis, Regulation

A Picture is Worse than a Thousand Words

– July 9, 2020

“A picture is worth a thousand words, but a picture is not a good substitute for thoughtful analysis. Does the image actually support the conclusion? Or even worse, is the image misleading, steering you to an incorrect conclusion?” ~ Ramon DeGennaro

Crisis, Education, Policy

Return of the One Room Schoolhouse?

– July 9, 2020

“Let’s learn from history and use the failure of our political system to push education back to the local level. I know many college professors, myself included, would be thrilled just to have students whose natural love of learning hasn’t been beaten out of them by 13 years of mass public education.” ~ Robert E. Wright