Although every recession is different, history offers lessons for the current pandemic-induced downturn. Amid so much uncertainty, policymakers should focus on keeping taxes low, developing plans for fiscal consolidation, and avoiding new regulations until the economy is back on track.
San Francisco is the most expensive housing market in the country. But doesn’t $25 million—not $2.5 million, $25 million—buy you a lot of house? You might be surprised at just how little. As I describe below, this home showcases just how comically distorted California’s housing policies have become, and why San Francisco continues its chronic march toward falling off an economic and social cliff.
While many Americans take free speech for granted, the tradition is far from universal. Many developed nations restrict speech that is deemed hurtful or offensive. And in the United States, there is increasing sentiment that some speech is not worth protecting. Is it time to reconsider the nation’s free-speech orthodoxy?
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Harvard professor who served under presidents of both political parties, observed in the early 1980s that “Republicans are the party of ideas.” That’s now ancient history. Conducting a national party convention with no platform while nominating a sitting president with no announced agenda for a second term, the Republican Party is going to wing this one on the back of President Trump. Whatever he thinks or tweets on a given day is now what they stand for.
The passing of Brent Scowcroft is an opportunity for a bit of reflection about the U.S. foreign policy elite and its attitude toward American military intervention in world affairs. There is a tendency, here and there, to think of such an elite as a “blob” with common views. There is no meaningful definition of the U.S. foreign policy elite between, say, 1980 and at least 2010, that would not have included Brent Scowcroft. Nor was he a marginal figure in that group.
Steve Horwitz’s recent post, “Marginal Revolutionaries: Kirzner and the Modern Austrians,” August 19, 2020, references the bio of Israel Kirzner in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. I finished the bio a couple of months ago and it was posted last month. Steve’s post reminded me that I had forgotten to call attention to it.
Hoover Institution fellow Scott Atlas says that the lockdowns are causing severe mental problems and notes that saving lives involves protecting the vulnerable while opening the schools and the economy.
Hoover Institution fellow Raghuram Rajan talks about cryptocurrencies bitcoin and Facebook-backed Libra as well as the role cryptocurrencies might play in a world where central banks globally begin to issue their own digital currencies.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has promised to lock down the U.S. if scientists advise it, but Special Adviser to the President Dr. Scott Atlas told “The Story” Monday that prolonging lockdowns is only leading to more deaths.
While California’s main stream media continues to report “spikes” and “balloons” in positive COVID-19 tests, no one is looking at the good news – that there are nearly 10 million negative test results. But Gov. Newsom still has the state mostly locked down.
On Sunday, as they had the previous week, tens of thousands of protesters converged on Belarus’s capital, Minsk. They chanted calls for the resignation and even the arrest of the country’s long-ruling authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, two weeks after he claimed victory in an election widely viewed as fraudulent. Authorities issued warnings against the mobilization in Minsk, but perhaps as many as 250,000 people from across the country marched in defiance, dwarfing smaller pro-regime rallies with crowds Lukashenko’s proxies reportedly coerced to attend.
A former Reserve Bank of India Governor, Raghuram Rajan, is sure Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra have a solid future if Central banks begin to issue their own cryptocurrency.
A symphony of superlatives played loudly Monday on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, as speaker after speaker lavished praise on President Trump and spoke of him in messianic, almost otherworldly terms.
The Commission published its draft report last month and it has received both acclaim and criticism. The virtual event on Friday, August 28, 2020 will feature Dr. Peter Berkowitz and Dr. Aaron Rhodes.
