It is perfectly fine to be afraid that you or a loved one will catch a potentially life-threatening virus, and at the same time deride the government’s reaction, especially when it comes to shutting down a significant portion of the economy. That section consists of...
Economics
If Face Masks Are Mandatory, Then It’s Time to End Mask Patents
by Nick Hankoff | Apr 22, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles
President Trump is convening with governors to reopen the economy, which will likely mean some sort of compulsory face mask order. Now is the time to seriously consider scrapping the patents on masks such as the N95. Government at all levels has severely overreacted...
We Don’t Need a Cure to Reopen
by Peter Boettke | Apr 21, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles
Back on March 19th, 2020, I pointed to this piece by Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas at my blog – Coordination Problem — where he states very clearly the reality constraint in public policy deliberations in the current coronavirus crisis. Without committing one way or...
Big Tech Firmly Embedded in the War State, DoD Report Shows
by Ken Silva | Apr 19, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
The Department of Defense inspector general has released a damning report on the DoD’s massive “JEDI” cloud computing project, exposing a revolving door between Amazon and the Pentagon. The DoD’s September 2017 announcement of JEDI (a catchy acronym for Joint...
Pandemic Hospital Layoffs Reveal the Prevalence of Wasteful Healthcare Spending
by Bradley Thomas | Apr 19, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles
Aside from a few hotspots like New York City or Detroit, hospitals across the country are at such low capacities that many are laying off staff and seeing their bottom lines threatened during the current coronavirus pandemic. For instance, in my home state of North...
TGIF: Is Self-reliance a Libertarian Ideal?
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 17, 2020 | Economics, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
An Associated Press article published a few days ago reported on disagreements among libertarians over what, if anything, the government may properly do about the coronavirus pandemic. My purpose here is not to comment on the quotes from the various libertarians. I...
Central Banks around the World Embrace Unprecedented ‘Quantitative Easing’
by Ryan McMaken | Apr 17, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles
It feels like it's been months, but it's only been a few weeks since the world's central banks started forcing down their key interest rates to historical lows around the world. In those places where rates weren't reduced, the central banks have adopted vast...
Lock Out Below! Lockdown Economy Plunging
by David Stockman | Apr 16, 2020 | Economics, Featured Articles
Mike Shedlock crystallized the Lockdown Nation catastrophe at hand by focusing on the unemployment claims numbers for Michigan Wednesday morning. And it doesn’t get any more transparent than a staggering 25% of the state’s work force already having filed unemployment...