The great price of America’s great lockdown

One reason why economists are viewed as modern-day Cassandras is that they tell us many things we don’t want to hear. Economics points relentlessly to the costs and benefits associated with particular decisions about alternative uses of scarce resources. Continue Reading...

Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer and the limits of science

There have been many responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in all spheres of life from businesses, educational institutions, churches, and within close intimate human relationships. Most of these responses have arisen spontaneously as people’s duties to protect themselves and others, both individuals and communities, have become plain to them. Continue Reading...

A free-market agenda for rebuilding from the coronavirus

On June 18, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill steeled his people for the Battle of Britain with a stirring speech in the House of Commons that concluded: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” Continue Reading...

Build yourself, build society

One of Christ’s best-known parables is the Parable of the Talents, but its familiarity disguises just how strange and unsettling its message is. It is a parable of a master who departs on a journey and entrusts three servants, each according to his ability, with his property. Continue Reading...

Cooperation vs. coercion amid COVID-19

As the COVID-19 crisis rolls on, many of America’s governors have continued to impose, extend or add new restrictions to stay-at-home orders, leading to increasingly arbitrary rule-making and growing criticism over the prudence and practicality of such measures. Continue Reading...

Cooperation, not coercion, will defeat COVID-19

As the COVID-19 crisis rolls on, many of America’s governors have continued to impose, extend, or add new restrictions to stay-at-home orders. This has led to increasingly arbitrary rule-making and growing criticism over the prudence and practicality of such measures. Continue Reading...