Coronavirus and Public Ineptitude

 Unlike their US counterparts, European political leaders are ready to admit their mistakes and stop doubling down on dumb policies.  Today's WSJ reports that new cases in Europe are spiking, primarily among young people, but new broad lockdowns will not happen. For example, the German health minister said Germany would have opted for less-sweeping measures had they known then what they know today. And the coordinator of the EU scientific advisory panel noted "there is only so much a government can do." European governments will stress personal responsibility, similar to how other public health problems are managed. 

Fat chance that governors like Cuomo and Whitmer will listen, let alone act.   

"Experts"

Don Boudreaux is an economics professor and a disciple of Hayek. Here's his letter to the editor of the WSJ commenting on a Jason Riley op ed.  

Editor

Jason Riley rightly warns of the dangers lurking in the Progressive assumption that humans are stupid, self-destructive, hate-filled hedonists who can cohere into a productive society only if so regimented by alleged experts – ‘experts’ whose commands each puny individual must obey (“Spare Us More of the Arrogance of ‘Expertise’,” September 2). Mr. Riley also rightly quotes the great Thomas Sowell in opposition to this arrogant and deeply mistaken notion.

But my favorite line from Prof. Sowell is a different one. It’s the closing sentence of his 1980 book, Knowledge and Decisions, in which he pleads for “above all, the right of ordinary people to find elbow room for themselves and a refuge from the rampaging presumptions of their ‘betters.’”*

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics

I'm starting to think that Thomas Sowell is one of the great analysts of our time. 

News Media

 It's not easy getting news on TV.  I often rotate through CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. None of them is close to being unvarnished.  So today I watched CBS Evening News, and was pleaseantly surprised.  A little left leaning, but  not too bad.  And it was news, not garbage and no Enquirer type fodder.   Who'd athunk it.