If the word “free” is to have any meaning, it should mean something more than whatever freedom remains after the government has finished restricting it.
The trouble with China’s new five-year plan is that it attempts to solve problems while leaving their underlying structural causes unaddressed. In this it is not unlike the final Soviet five-year plans of the 1980s.
Most regimes in favor of strict lockdowns in Western Europe now have some of the highest covid death rates in the world. And now prolockdown eastern Europe is headed in the same direction.
A very close or contested election would remind us that elections do not demonstrate "the will of the people" and that national unity is founded on some very fragile myths.
Twenty years ago, it looked like Chile was well on its way to joining the world's small club of developed countries. But this path looks less and less likely as Chile abandons its commitment to freedom and markets.
It seems the reach and influence of central banks has never been higher, yet they are increasingly flying blind in an environment where central bank tools are growing ever more imprecise and dangerous.
