Long-Run Policy Lessons from the Coronavirus Pandemic

Between March 2020 and January 2021, I authored a five-part series (see here, here, here, here, and here) on how big government hindered a quick and effective response to the coronavirus pandemic. In this discussion with Brad Polumbo, I summarize some of my key points. While I criticized the dismal performance of the FDA, CDC, and WHO, I […]

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Coronavirus and Property Rights

Looking at the dismal performance of the FDA, CDC, and WHO, the obvious takeaway from the pandemic is that big government doesn’t work very well. Indeed, that was the point of a five-part series (see here, here, here, here, and here) on the topic. One implication of all this analysis is that it’s almost always […]

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Coronavirus: The Free Market to the Rescue

I’ve authored a five-part series about coronavirus and the failure of big government (here, here, here, here, and here), as well as columns specifically highlighting the failures of the FDA, CDC, and WHO bureaucracies. Today, let’s look at how free enterprise came to the rescue when government barriers were reduced. Starting with this video. To elaborate on […]

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Coronavirus and the Failure of Big Government: A Closer Look at the FDA

In my five-part series on coronavirus and the failure of big government (here, here, here, here, and here), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received some unflattering attention. Whether we’re examining its performance regarding equipment, testing, or vaccines, the bureaucracy has hindered the private sector’s ability to quickly and effectively respond to the pandemic. Today, […]

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Coronavirus and Federalism

I was a big fan of federalism (to the extent it still exists) before any of us ever heard of the coronavirus. And, given the federal government’s incompetent response to the pandemic, I’m an even bigger fan of federalism today. Though that doesn’t mean states are paragons of efficiency and competence. Here’s a map from […]

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Coronavirus and the Failure of Big Government, Part V

I wrote a four-part series last year about coronavirus and big government (here, here, here, and here), so it goes without saying that the first two lines of this tweet deserve some sort of accuracy award for hitting the nail on the head. But the sentiment expressed in the last line of the tweet also […]

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Even after the Coronavirus Spending Spree, It’s Simple to Balance the Budget Without Tax Increases

There are two reasons why I generally don’t write much about government debt. First, red ink is not desirable, but it’s mostly just the symptom of the far more important problem of excessive government spending. Second, our friends on the left periodically try to push through big tax increases by hypocritically exploiting anxiety about red […]

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Canada’s Fiscal Policy Has Been Deteriorating Under Trudeau, even Before Coronavirus

Back in 2011, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity released this video citing four nations – Canada, Ireland, Slovakia, and New Zealand – that achieved very good results with multi-year periods of genuine spending restraint. Today, let’s focus on what’s been happening with government spending in Canada. As explained in the video, America’s northern neighbor […]

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Coronavirus and the Government School Monopoly?

The coronavirus has been horrible news, most obviously because of death and suffering. But the disease has also wreaked havoc with the economy and given politicians an excuse to push counterproductive policies. But if you want to find a silver lining to that dark cloud, the virus may be putting pressure on America’s government school […]

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Coronavirus and Gun Ownership

Back in March, I explained that the coronavirus pandemic showed why it’s so valuable for people to have the right of gun ownership. Let’s revisit the topic and we’ll start with the bad news. As illustrated by this Reason video, Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to exploit the crisis by imposing sweeping limits on our civil […]

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Coronavirus and the Two Americas

Earlier this month, Neil Ferguson was awarded membership in the Bureaucrat Hall of Fame after he and his mistress were caught violating lockdown rules that Ferguson – in his role as a supposed public health expert – demanded for the entire United Kingdom. This was a stunning display of hypocrisy, perhaps even to the extent […]

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The 10th and Final Edition of Coronavirus Humor

I started sharing politically-themed coronavirus humor back in March and that’s now been a tradition for nine consecutive weekends (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). This will be the final edition. We’ll start with a clever video from Kevin James. It could be entitled, Revenge of the Karens. Next we […]

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Using Coronavirus as an Excuse for More E.U. Centralization and Redistribution

I wrote earlier this month about coronavirus becoming an excuse for more bad public policy. American politicians certainly have been pushing all sorts of proposals for bigger government, showing that they have embraced the notion that you don’t want to let a “crisis go to waste.” But nothing that’s happening in the United States is […]

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Coronavirus, Federal Spending, and Media Innumeracy

When I write enough columns with the same underlying point, I sometimes create a special page to highlight the theme, such as the “Bureaucrat Hall of Fame” and “Poverty Hucksters.” I may have to do something similar for people who assert that America’s response to the coronavirus has been hampered because the federal government is […]

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Coronavirus Humor

Continuing with an unfortunate tradition, here’s our eighth weekend collection of satire about the mix of public policy and coronavirus. We’ll start with one of Remy’s Reason videos, which are always worth watching. I wrote last year about superior education outcomes for home-schooled kids. Apparently there are other benefits to being away from government schools. […]

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Restoring Fiscal Sanity, Post-Coronavirus

The good news is that there will be a record reduction next year in the burden of government spending. Unfortunately, the bad news is that this reduction will only occur because of gigantic spending increases this year. In this webinar, I explain how fiscal policy is being affected by coronavirus, and then explain why a […]

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Coronavirus and the Failure of Big Government: A Closer Look at the CDC

I’ve written four columns (here, here, here, and here) on the general failure of government health bureaucracies to effectively respond to the coronavirus. The pattern was so pronounced that it even led me to unveil a Seventh Theorem of Government. I’m not surprised at this outcome, of course, given the poor overall track record of […]

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Another Weekly Edition of Coronavirus Humor

As a policy wonk, I wish people would get excited about my columns about topics such as “tax depreciation” and “trade data” and my missives about issues such as “budget concepts” and “cost-benefit analysis.” Instead, I notice that my humor-oriented columns generate a lot more traffic, which is somewhat humbling since I’m not contributing anything. […]

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Coronavirus Is Worsening America’s Grim Fiscal Outlook

I’ve warned that the budgetary impact of the coronavirus may trigger another fiscal crisis in Europe. Especially Italy. But what about the United States? Will we reach a point, as Margaret Thatcher famously warned, of running out of other people’s money? We probably still have a couple of decades before that happens, as I speculated […]

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Does Sweden Have the Right Response to the Coronavirus?

Having already written several dozen columns on public policy and the coronavirus, it’s time to add my two cents to the debate over Sweden’s (comparatively) laissez-faire approach to the pandemic. If nothing else, it’s remarkable that the nation Bernie Sanders praised for socialism (albeit incorrectly) is now the poster child for (some) libertarians. What makes […]

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Coronavirus and the Future of Public Policy

I spoke last week about the “Economic Consequences of the Crisis” for a webinar organized by the Estonian Business School. My remarks focused on the severity of the downturn, the likelihood of a new fiscal crisis in Europe, and how to balance the costs and benefits of re-opening the economy. The full program, which was […]

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Coronavirus Humor, Part VII

For this seventh edition of coronavirus humor (previous versions here, here, here, here, here, and here), let’s start with a clever video from Reason. There are many reasons why the Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves. The coronavirus is merely the most-recent example. While law-abiding people are worried about crime and societal breakdown, it […]

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Coronavirus and the States: Spending Restraint, Bailouts, Default, or Bankruptcy?

A Supreme Court Justice pointed out in 1932 that “a state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” Well, we’ve had several experiments in higher taxes and higher spending, and they don’t work. States with heavier fiscal burdens […]

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Coronavirus and the Risky Mix of Bailouts, Big Business, and Big Government

Since government officials have imposed severe restrictions on economic activity, I’m sympathetic to the notion that businesses should be compensated. But, as I warn in this CNBC interview, I have major concerns about big government and big business getting in bed together. As is so often the case with interviews on live TV, there are […]

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Government Size, Government Effectiveness, and Coronavirus

A couple of weeks ago, I debunked a remarkably anti-empirical column by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. He claimed that America’s response to the coronavirus was hampered because government is too small, yet the nations he cited as successful role models actually have much smaller public sectors than the United States. I congratulated him […]

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The Sixth Edition of Coronavirus Humor

Having written about serious and depressing coronavirus-related issues during the week, it’s time for some politically-themed coronavirus humor. Regular readers know that I’m a long-time proponent of this message for healthy thinking. Moreover, I think it’s safe to say that coronavirus won’t come close to killing as many people as the various strains of socialism. […]

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Coronavirus and Subsidized Unemployment

Remember the “jobless recovery” of the Obama years? Part of the problem was that President Obama kept extending unemployment benefits, which subsidized joblessness, as even Paul Krugman and Larry Summers had warned. The good news was that Congress eventually said no in 2014 (actually one of the three best things to happen that year). After […]

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Wealth Tax and Coronavirus

The folks who don’t want to let a crisis go to waste have been very busy in the era of coronavirus, pushing an ever-expanding menu of bad ideas. Propping up high-tax states such as New York, Illinois, and California by restoring the tax code’s deduction for state and local tax payments. Hindering the efficient allocation […]

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Coronavirus Humor

Time for the 5th edition of coronavirus humor (previous versions here, here, here, and here). Our first item is one that may me laugh out loud, perhaps because it also reminded me on another cameo appearance by Bill Clinton. Next, we have Bernie Sanders celebrating America’s coronavirus-inspired experiment with socialism. My friends on the left […]

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Coronavirus and Federalism

I’ve written that policy makers need to consider both the human toll of the coronavirus and the human toll of a depressed economy. I also discussed this tradeoff with Brian Nichols, beginning about seven minutes into this podcast. And, as you can see from this tweet, even the United Nations has acknowledged that a weak […]

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