The massive bailout of indebted sectors that already had overcapacity and were in process of obsolescence may also drive the largest wave of malinvestment in decades. If the previous recoveries came with poor wage and capital expenditure growth and high debt, the next one will likely be even worse.
If we do not correctly take into account the opportunity cost, in terms of lives that can be lost from lockdowns, then we will most likely continue to make bad decisions in the future.
The reality of mandatory shutdowns is that state and local governments are now in the driver's seat, and that means that state and local politics is what really matters.
Police are not legally obligated to provide protection from criminals. Nor are they motivated to go after hardened criminals or investigate violent crime. Self defense (or private security) is the only reliable option.
If time preference is genetically built into humans, are they double discounting future goods? Does this mean people should stop trying to weigh time in their calculations?
A high German court recently ruled that the European Central Bank has overstepped the bounds of its power. The angry response from high-ranking European bureaucrats tells us a lot about what they want for the EU.
James Bovard reports form Maryland, where the COVID-19 lockdowns have decimated employment and the rules only apply to powerless ordinary people. Cops and politicians can do as they like.
In a free country, doctors would be free to prescribe whatever drugs they wish to anyone for any reason. In fact, individuals should be free to buy drugs without a special government-required doctor's note.
Americans were once harangued by government "experts" about the need to slow down on highways in order to save lives. Few listened. Today, laws demanding everyone "stay at home" may suffer a similar fate.
Neither voters nor politicians watch the bureaucracy very carefully, so they respond as one might expect—advancing their own and their favorites' interests, at the expense of the public they are supposedly working for.
