Regulation
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Good Riddance to Recycling Trucks
I was pleasantly surprised that curbside recycling has been suspended–for explicitly environmental and epidemiological reasons. Maybe curbside recycling is gone for good, which would free up resources that would then be available to expand the kinds of operations that actually help the environment.
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Free to Choose a Possible Cure
Of course much is uncertain. The outcomes of racing in NASCAR, climbing Mount Everest, and launching into space are uncertain. Yet we allow adults to choose to race, climb, and launch. So, how can we forbid a patient with Covid-19 from taking experimental drugs?
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Now It’s Obvious: The Political Class and the Media Are Spinning Tales
Rather than accepting the epistemic limitations of the current crisis as a reason to abstain from aggressive policies, they double down on the same. And when their chosen courses go awry or fail to deliver on their promised salvation, history is rewritten to obscure the fact that such promises were ever made.
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The Monumental Failure of the CDC
This time, these government failures have resulted in millions of Americans being all stuck in their homes, schools being closed, the economy in a recession, and 18,000 people having died so far.
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The 100-Day Disaster that Befell America
It took only 100 days to asphyxiate the world economy and the suggestion of possible sickness to render a nation once characterized by rugged individualism, personal liberty, bravery and industry into house-bound milksops.
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May this Crisis Shock Us Into Embracing Freedom
During a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, certain things suddenly come into sharp focus. In this case, we are overwhelmed with examples of how regulatory barriers, restrictions, and blockages have hindered the ability of society to adapt to rapidly changing conditions. In his preface to the 1982 edition of his classic Capitalism and Freedom, Milton…
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People Adapt, Thwarting Government Plans
If you derive no other takeaway from the political response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, let it be this: human behavior adapts in real-time to ever-changing expectations of the future.
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We Don’t Yet Live in a Police State. Or Perhaps We Do.
Government advice is just that, good or bad and I grant that it is mostly sensible. But it is not for the police to misinterpret the law as they see fit or to enforce government advice.
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The Best-laid Plans Often Go Astray, Even for Macroprudential Regulators
The problem with this comment is its failure to be the least bit realistic. It ignores a basic fact: whatever plans regulators have in place for a financial crisis or for a pandemic causing financial distress or some other event causing financial distress–any plan, that is–will be wrong in important ways.
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Governor Cuomo Endorses Price Gouging; Sign the Petition
It is a back-handed “endorsement” of market principles from the governor of New York, but we will take it.
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Rethink the Disease-Spreading Hand Dryer in a Pandemic
The effect is akin to setting off an airborne bomb of viruses and bacteria inside a restroom, with mounting evidence showing that they also quickly disperse throughout the attached buildings.
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Medical-Supply Nationalism Is Deeply Harmful, Even Deadly
When there is a shortage of medical supplies, going out of our way to make them more expensive will hurt people. These are also not perishable goods – stockpiling them from efficient sources to be deployed in a future crisis seems like a safer bet than shiny new idle factories waiting to ramp up production…
