“The Flawed COVID-19 Model That Locked Down Canada” By Peter St. Onge and Gaël Campan, courtesy of IEDM Before mid-March, most Canadians saw COVID-19 as an overseas problem. The emphasis was on returning Canadians stuck in China, and there had been a single COVID-19 death in Canada, a BC man in his 80s with […]
Tag: pandemic
Public health responses and their economic costs
“The consequences of the Covid-19 lockdown: what does history teach us?” By Sergio Beraldo, courtesy of IREF Last February, this website hosted an article titled “The unintended consequences of coronavirus”. At the time the article was published, the situation was not at all dramatic in Europe. For example, the official Covid-19 […]
How South Korea, Taiwan leveraged tech to contain COVID-19… and win FDI
By Frank Bickenbach and Wan-Hsin Liu, courtesy of IFW Kiel In the coronavirus crisis, Taiwan and South Korea have shown that they dispose of efficient governance systems, high-quality research and public services and highly developed digital skills and infrastructures, and that they can successfully use these capacities to meet challenges. These capacities are among […]
COVID-19 will force change on UK’s welfare state
“Very unlikely” current welfare system will survive the Covid-19 pandemic, says new IEA briefing By Dr. Stephen Davies, courtesy of IEA Radical changes to the welfare system are historically associated with major crises and events such as wars, civil unrest, famines or epidemics. There is no reason that it will this time be any different, says a new […]
Emergency COVID-19 Stimulus Programs Are a Short-Term Solution
By Thomas Hoenig, courtesy of the Mercatus Center The federal government and the Federal Reserve have implemented unprecedented spending and monetary policies to combat the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. These policies, while necessary in the short term, place an ever larger mortgage against the nation’s future income; and extending them […]
The Great EU Airline Refund Scam
By Bill Wirtz, courtesy of the Austrian Economics Center At first 12, now 16 EU member states are looking to overturn rules requiring airlines to refund passengers with cash payments if their flight had been cancelled as a result of COVID-19 travel restrictions. The companies have been lobbying the European Council to disable […]
Pandemic highlights Latin American innovators – and laggards
By Federico N. Fernández, Somos Innovación The innovation scene in Latin America shows two faces that couldn’t be more different from each other. I think the following three examples help us to explain what I see: Just a year ago, a group of Chilean Senators proposed a bill called “decent digital […]
Beware of trying to “make China pay” for COVID-19
“It Would Be Great to “Make China Pay” for COVID-19, But the Price Could Be High” By Doug Bandow, courtesy of the Cato Institute Many of us hoped that economic liberalization in China would encourage political reform. The country did change dramatically: Maoism was tossed into history’s trash bin, while personal autonomy and economic […]
Will Post-Pandemic California Be More Progressive or More Libertarian?
By Kerry Jackson, Pacific Research Institute From government officials to pundits, we’ve been told the world will be a different place after the COVID-19 lockdowns have been lifted. What, one wonders, will California be like? Will it move even further left? If we’re willing to listen, the pandemic has provided some instructive lessons on […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Just Say “NO” to State Bailouts!
By Andy Blom, TES Correspondent Amidst all of the Coronavirus confusion, hoopla and hysteria, a couple of big questions are emerging: When do we open? Who foots the bill? Serious, and some not so serious, thinkers are putting forth ideas, suggestions, warnings and bulls**t ideas. Will there ever be a normal? (Yes.) Was this […]