The burden of proof should be on those who want to reimpose them.
Category Archives: Economics
It Begins
Germany just sent a £130B bill for ‘coronavirus damages’ – sparks fury in Beijing.
[Monday-morning update]
I don’t know if that original story is valid, but apparently Israel and U.S. law firms are suing the CCP for trillions. Even if they have no mechanism to force payment, this will certainly diminish China in the eyes of the world, and it could provide a legitimate excuse for defaulting on the money we owe them.
The Great Depression
The media continues to peddle BS history about it (unfortunately, because it was what they were taught in government schools).
It was sad to see Emily Compagno the other day on The Five say that FDR was elected to deal with Hoover’s “inaction.” So even conservatives believe this nonsense.
Hoover’s policies were disastrous, but they were the very opposite of inaction, and he was the furthest thing from laissez faire. If Coolidge had had a third term, likely the economy would have recovered within a year. Hoover created the depressions, but FDR made it great.
[Update a few minutes later]
Our garbage media.
[Update a while later]
A review of Amity Schlaes’s new book on how poverty won the war on poverty, including some of the history of the Depression.
[Late-morning update]
In reading that history, I had not known that Walter Reuther had sponsored the Port Huron Statement (I lived sixty miles west, in Flint) at the time. It reminded me of a post I wrote early in my blogging career, almost two decades ago now (where did the years go?) about my brief period as a junior-high campus radical.
China’s Honeymoon In Africa
The thrill is gone.
LA County
Over a 50% unemployment rate?
What a disaster.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well, this news about Hokkaido’s second wave isn’t great.
[Update Saturday morning]
California’s “Reopening Task Force” is the usual leftist hacks, who don’t want a pandemic to go to waste. It would be a joke if not for how disastrous this will be.
How To Get The Economy Back In Gear
No, it’s not going to be easy. Some things will be changed permanently.
[Update at noon]
Six things we’ve learned so far. The sixth is probably the most important. People are going to try to take advantage of this to do what they’ve always wanted to do.
Welcome Back To History, America
The Models
…were flawed and misleading.
As with climate, models are not science.
The Duration
Things of which Lileks is mightily tired.
Me, too.
Space Resources Update
An article on the legal state of asteroid mining. This isn’t true, though: “Much like the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the United States has not signed the Moon Agreement but by custom it adheres to the treaty — at least until Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which explicitly rejects the idea that such agreements are binding to the USA.”
Meanwhile, Michael Listner writes that we must return to the moon to preserve the rule of law in space. Well, that’s certainly a reason, but not the only (or even best) one.