On Monday, May 11, you could feel the excited anticipation in the headline of the pro-Democrat political site, fivethirtyeight.com (the site’s name refers to the Electoral College vote, of course): Two Special Elections On Tuesday Could Hint At Another Blue Wave In 2020 The introduction of the article kept up the breathless pace, with […]
The Best Defense Against Covid-19 is a Strong Immune System
Pandemic Report No. 7 We know that Covid-19 is particularly brutal to elderly people with underlying medical conditions, most of which adversely affect their immune systems. This is why nursing homes and assisted living facilities account for about 40% or more of the deaths from the pandemic. Almost everyone in them has one or more […]
Reopen the Economy and Protect the Most Vulnerable: We Can Do Both
Pandemic Report No. 6 In my last Pandemic Report, I showed the vast differences in how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the 50 states, and the vast differences within each state. The solution, I suggested, is to let Americans decide at the local level—counties and cities—how and when to restrict activities while fighting the virus. […]
Let the Lockdown End, County by County
Pandemic Report No. 5 Grassroots protests are multiplying against the draconian stay-at-home orders, and every day brings new announcements of states ending parts of their lockdowns. The challenge is to do it intelligently to avoid a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Geographically, the way to do that is to end the lockdowns on a […]
Is Sweden’s Problem Coronavirus or Immigration?
Pandemic Report No. 4 Sweden is a capitalist Scandinavian welfare state. It is not a socialist state, as some conservatives mistakenly believe, but it is definitely not a nation where American social conservatives or fiscal conservatives would feel comfortable. For a domestic comparison, look at the U.S. state with the heaviest population of Scandinavian extraction: […]
An Economic Shutdown Based On…What?
Pandemic Report No. 3 What a difference a week makes! When I wrote my last report on April 6, the nation’s leaders were still basing their decisions on coronavirus computer “models” that were unchallenged. I sought to show that the foreign statistics that formed the basis for these models ranged from unreliable to useless, and […]
How Bad Has the Pandemic Been? How Bad Will It Be?
Pandemic Report No. 2 “U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Hits Highest Any Country Has Suffered in One Day”—Daily Beast, April 3 “Coronavirus May Kill 100,000 to 240,000 in U.S. Despite Actions, Officials Say”—The New York Times, March 31 Not so fast! Let’s all take a deep breath and see if it is possible to make sense […]
Rapid-Response Book on the Corona Crisis
Talk about quick action. The coronavirus crisis has been with us for just three months, and the American Institute for Economic Research (Great Barrington, Massachusetts) already has a book available from Amazon. It’s Coronavirus and Economic Crisis, with 24 contributors and edited by Peter C. Earle. AIER summarizes the main takeaways of the book: The […]
How Big of a Threat Is the Coronavirus?
How big of a threat is the coronavirus in the United States? The answer, of course, is that nobody knows. I certainly do not want to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic, especially in regard to the measures you should take to protect yourself. However, there is some reason to view the “end of the […]
The Biden Candidacy: Part II Can Joe Biden Defeat President Trump in November?
The bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee is now a two-mule race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. And the question that’s foremost in the minds of most Democrats is: Can either of them defeat President Trump in November? The Democratic establishment—its large donors, Washington insiders, party hacks, and down-ballot officeholders—clearly think Bernie Sanders […]