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.
Government bureaucrats have their own standards for declaring when a pandemic has "officially" ended. But the de facto ending comes when the public stops paying attention.
The slogan "taxation without representation" implies that taxation with representation is both possible and moral. But the idea of political representation is fraught with errors.
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 free market in money means real freedom to choose what money we use. This may mean people turn to gold and silver. Or they may turn to crypto. What's important is that it's market-based money.
In a classic "bootleggers and baptists" scenario, it looks like pharmaceutical companies are calling for greater regulation of kratom, which is viewed a potential competitor to patented drugs.
