Viruses versus Lockdowns: It’s Not about Tradeoffs
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It is tempting to oppose the harmful effects of COVID-related lockdowns with arguments couched in terms of tradeoffs.
The Economic Effects of the Government’s Response to COVID-19
Germany Pushes Back against the ECB’s Bailouts
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Tuesday’s ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court (the Karlsruhe Court) is a watershed moment in the European project.
The case concerns an ongoing tug of war between the EU’s supreme court—the European Court of Justice (ECJ)—and the Karlsruhe Court on the legality of the European Central Bank’s ongoing purchase of sovereign bonds.
Negative Interest Rates: Rewarding Profligacy
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Presently there are trillions of dollars of bonds throughout the world with negative interest rates. This is an unprecedented turn of events, and one that has many nonprofessional investors confused. Savers are understandably puzzled as to how it is possible for bonds to carry negative interest rates. After all, would an intelligent person really lend $1,000 to someone only to be paid back $950 one year from now?
More Protectionism and Regulation Won’t Fix the Economy
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant economic strains, some protectionists and anti-immigration ideologues are trying to take advantage of this opportunity to advance their nationalist agenda. They argue that if the United States had restricted international trade and immigration more thoroughly in the past, as President Trump had fought to achieve, the public health crisis could have been curtailed.
