In this week’s column, I’d like to discuss two arguments Murray Rothbard gives that respond to influential criticisms of the free market. His answers to the two arguments follow a common strategy. In each case, he rejects the key premise of the argument.
Several countries have introduced mandatory “health passes” and made Covid-19 vaccination compulsory since last summer. The vaccination mandates represent a massive infringement of human rights and their medical justification has dwindled over time. Yet, governments are doubling down on their resolution to vaccinate everybody. But, will people accept this abuse and should they let governments decide on individual health matters?
Last month, Colorado governor Jared Polis ended statewide mask mandates and social distancing provisions, stating that “the emergency is over.“ This, of course, does not mean Colorado is now laissez-faire in terms of covid. Public higher education institutions—thanks to Polis’s tacit approval—still have free rein in terms of imposing vaccine and mask mandates and in forcing classes to “go online” whenever the college bureaucrats grow sufficiently alarmed about covid.
The Federal Reserve currently has a board composed of five people. At $970 million spent on board expenditures in 2021, this equates to an average cost of $194 million per each Governor. Isn’t this completely incomprehensible, and something the mainstream media or Congress should inquire about next time they meet with the Fed?
[Mr. Grant studied under Mises at NYU in the early 1960s and became a friend of Rothbard’s some years thereafter.]
In all times of state dominance, the instability of the system gives rise to two types of reformers: the moderates who want to work within the system but end up defending it, and the radicals who have the clarity to see that the only real solution is upheaval. If the latter prevail — and they often have in the history of politics — it is only after having endured the slings and arrows of the former.
The Chinese regime is doubling down on its “zero covid” strategy. In recent weeks, new covid cases have been detected in several cities. In a world of the more contagious omicron variant, this is to be expected.
But what has been the Chinese state’s response? It’s more of the same. Lockdowns, travel suspensions, and more. NBC reports:
Should sex or race play a role in hiring decisions at the Federal Reserve?
Consider the alleged problem in which the mainstream media, economists and Congress want your focus, courtesy of Reuters:
Currently, the Fed’s board has only five members, all white and three of whom are men.
