Topic: Policy

Value Is What I Say It Is

– November 30, 2020

“The disdain for private commerce pours through the pages of The Deficit Myth, but never so much so as when Kelton imagines the transition for a newly unemployed worker. Rather than ‘sort boxes at a private retailer,’ she says, the worker in her scheme will ‘perform a useful job in public service.’ Everything that’s wrong with the (left’s) modern overhaul of value theory is included in that sentence.” ~ Joakim Book

Economic Education, Government, Policy

Student-Loan Cancellation Shouldn’t Happen, But It’s Not The ‘Working Classes’ Bailing Out The Rich

– November 24, 2020

“While it would be wrong to forgive federal student debt, let’s not add to what’s incorrect with nonsensical allusions to ‘real America’ paying for bailouts of Beverly Hills, Manhattan and Pacific Heights.” ~ John Tamny

Crisis, Economic Education, Policy

Cost of Lockdowns: A Preliminary Report

– November 18, 2020

“In the debate over coronavirus policy, there has been far too little focus on the costs of lockdowns. It’s very common for the proponents of these interventions to write articles and large studies without even mentioning the downsides.” ~ AIER Staff

Crisis, Policy, Science

Keeping Covid Perspective

– November 15, 2020

“What I believe is deranged is the failure to put Covid-19 in proper perspective. It is deranged to behave as if the risks that Covid poses to kindergartners, to college students, and to healthy young people are indistinguishable from the risks that Covid posed to your elderly father, or poses even to me, a 62-year-old.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Government, Policy

It’s Time To Admit: Drugs Won The War On Drugs

– November 7, 2020

“Ten years ago, ending the drug war was a pipe dream. Now, medical marijuana and recreational marijuana are being legalized in state after state. I can only hope that the end of all this Reefer Madness is near.” ~ Art Carden

Economic Education, Government, Policy

We need a Market for Expert Advice, and Competition Among Experts

– November 5, 2020

“Without competition among experts, we can expect more expert failure in the future. It is time to reform SAGE and reduce the monopoly power of its one, largely unchallenged, team of experts.” ~ Roger Koppl

Crisis, Policy, Science

The 2013 Lockdown Experiment in Boston

– November 4, 2020

“In April 2013, a citywide lockdown was cancelled in less than one day owing to concerns about health & commercial costs.” ~ Peter C. Earle

Crisis, Policy, Science

A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy

– November 4, 2020

“We should respond to the COVID virus rationally: protect the vulnerable, treat the people who get infected compassionately, develop a vaccine. And while doing these things we should bring back the civilization that we had so that the cure does not end up being worse than the disease.” ~ Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy

The ’Rona Squeeze and a Swedish Hip-Hopper

– November 3, 2020

“Most everywhere else, different rules apply: no matter the facts, we must squeeze harder. The badly-behaved virus must stop progressing, must cease and desist. Anything else, apparently, ‘just doesn’t seem worth it.'” ~ Joakim Book

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Policy, Public Choice and Public Policy

So Much for the “Strawman” of Lockdowns

– November 2, 2020

“Similar returns to lockdown are being actively discussed at the national level across Europe, and on a regional basis in the United States. The much-derided ‘straw man’ of renewed lockdowns, it would appear, has already sprung to life.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Economic Education, Policy, Regulation

Monopoly vs. Monopoly: Sloppy Definitions Lead to Harmful Policy

– November 1, 2020

“A new term is needed for the highly-competitive innovators who achieve large market shares by creatively providing outstanding, innovative, and lower-cost products and services that are of such value that millions of people choose to buy their products. We can keep the term ‘monopoly,’ but it should be reserved for describing those government-created and sanctioned dinosaurs like the US Postal Service.” ~ Raymond C. Niles

Economic Education, Free Markets, Policy

“Slide-Rule Aid”? Why Not?

– October 31, 2020

“Saving one industry means hurting another, and I cannot help but wonder: what troubles have we endured and what progress have we sacrificed in order to protect obsolete producers of soybeans, steel, shirts, schooling…and slide rules?” ~ Art Carden