Top Page Links

States can’t act in place of feds during a pandemic

    The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of federal action in coordinating emergency public health response, according to a commentary in Fortune by Fanyin Zheng, an assistant professor of the Decision, Risk, and Operations Division of Columbia Business School. In the op-ed, titled “States cannot fight coronavirus alone. The federal government must […]

Top Page Links

Individual responsibility now, or face illiberal regimes soon

  “Private and state responsibility in pandemic times” By Dr. Peter Grünenfelder, courtesy of Avenir Suisse   Anarchists and libertarians have one mistake in common: both believe that a community can function without sovereign institutions. Classic liberals have never had anything to do with such enthusiasms. Whether Immanuel Kant, John Locke or Montesquieu, they were […]

Top Page Links

Time to Bring Back Copper in Public Spaces?

    By Sandra Wirtz, courtesy of American Resources Policy Network   Rock beats scissors. Scissors beat paper. Copper beats coronavirus.   It sounds flippant, but at this moment of utmost seriousness, there’s a truth to it.    In a new piece, senior writer for Fast Company Mark Wilson discusses the thesis of Bill Keevil, […]

Top Page Links

Steve Forbes: To Shore Up The U.S. Economy, Do These 3 Things — Now!

                      Writing for his favorite eponymous publication, media mogul and informal advisor to the Trump Administration Steve Forbes published a short list of actions the government should urgently take to keep capital flowing to a corona-battered U.S. economy.    In a nutshell, here’s what Forbes […]

Top Page Links

What We Learned From HIV/AIDS: Panic Will Make It Worse

    By Mark Chataway, Co-Founder of Bairds CMC and Hyderus   I was in charge of communications for the largest HIV services group in the USA in 1983. I started work just after most Americans first heard about AIDS. The novel Coronavirus is not HIV, but I have noticed similarities in the panic surrounding […]

Top Page Links

Washington Beyond the Headlines: Behold, DOL, DOT Doing Their Jobs

    By Andy Blom, TES Correspondent   Congress fights the Coronavirus the only way it knows how — with panic and partisan bickering. Many Americans are just treating it like a snow day.  Meanwhile free market policy people, now even more socially isolated than usual, are still working on issues and ideas that affect […]

Top Page Links

Oil War Aims At U.S. Fracking

    By Daniel McGroarty, TES GeoPolicy Editor APRIL 14, 2020 UPDATE:  In one of the few non-COVID news stories still commanding attention, global economy watchers are focused on an Easter agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia that aims at global oil production cuts of at least 10%. The catch:  the cuts won’t come immediately, but in May. […]

Top Page Links

Dr. Carri Chan, Columbia Business School: How Hospitals Manage A Coronavirus Surge

  With Covid-19 spreading quickly, intensive care units (ICUs) across America are bracing for a wave of new patients.   Experts project up to 2 million ICUs visits during the outbreak. Nationwide, there are approximately 75,000 ICU beds, and on average 85% of them are already occupied.   Demand for ICUs will quickly outstrip supply—unless […]

Top Page Links

Coronavirus, Butter and Oil: As We Brace for Pandemic, We Also Need to Inoculate Ourselves Against Group-Think

  Daniel McGroarty, TES GeoPolicy Editor   As the world wakes each morning to new numbers mapping the Coronavirus’ spread, along comes a piece by Andrew Butter provocatively titled, “What China Knows About the Coronavirus that Oil Traders Don’t Know.”  Read it in full at SeekingAlpha.   Butter watches global oil markets, and he’s noticed […]