Economics

Economics articles featuring analysis of the global censorship industrial complex, impacts on public health, free trade, liberty, and policy.

All Brownstone Institute economics articles are translated into multiple languages.

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The Sky is Falling!

A Closer Look at the Covid Mortality Rate

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Economic destruction, increased suicide attempts due to seemingly indefinite isolation, horrifying levels of learning loss, increasing obesity amongst kids, plummeting test scores, increased poverty and hunger, supply chain problems, rampant inflation; all of it is a direct result of policies imposed by terrified, incompetent “experts.”

A Closer Look at the Covid Mortality Rate Read Journal Article

economic disaster pandemic response

The Economic Disaster of the Pandemic Response 

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Economics is about people in their choices and institutions that enable them to thrive. Public health is about the same thing. Driving a wedge between the two surely ranks among the most catastrophic public-policy decisions of our lifetimes. Health and economics both require the nonnegotiable called freedom. May we never again experiment with its near abolition in the name of disease mitigation. 

The Economic Disaster of the Pandemic Response  Read Journal Article

US Government Officials Dumped Stocks Prior to Lockdowns, Report Shows

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In an explosive new report from the Wall Street Journal, leading health officials began offloading stocks at truly unprecedented rates in January 2020—well before the COVID-19 emergency was declared—with officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services selling 60% more stocks in January 2020 than average over the previous 12 months.

US Government Officials Dumped Stocks Prior to Lockdowns, Report Shows Read Journal Article

The Macroeconomic Consequences of Lockdowns and the Aftermath

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Washington compensated one and all for the resulting harm and then some by unleashing a $6 trillion spending bacchanalia in less than 14 months, which was accomplished with barely a dissent from either party to the Washington duopoly because interest rates on government debt had plunged to an all-time low. In turn, that was enabled by the most reckless spurt of money printing and debt monetization in recorded history.

The Macroeconomic Consequences of Lockdowns and the Aftermath Read Journal Article

Et Tu, PayPal? The EU’s Role in Defunding Dissent

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Could the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation and its Digital Services Act (DSA) have something to do with PayPal’s skittish forays into “combatting disinformation?” Well, yes, they could, and you may rest assured that EU officials or representatives have already had a word with PayPal about them. 

Et Tu, PayPal? The EU’s Role in Defunding Dissent Read Journal Article

Ben Bernanke Was the Crisis

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Left alone, recessions are the cure. The problem was that the political class tried to medicate what was healthy.  Bernanke fell hard for the medication part. Fast forward to 2008, a falling dollar under the impressively inept President George W. Bush had instigated what Ludwig von Mises referred to in Human Action as a “flight to the real.” Yes, presidents get the dollar they want, Bush wanted a weak one, and a falling dollar drove massive consumption of housing over investment in new ideas.  

Ben Bernanke Was the Crisis Read Journal Article

Inflation and Recession are Becoming Entrenched

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A bad stagflation is here. Since the Fed will be locked in a battle to tame the price side of the equation even as real output falters for months and years to come, we seriously doubt that the economic contraction to be recorded on Joe Biden’s watch will be described in the history books as a “very slight recession.”

Inflation and Recession are Becoming Entrenched Read Journal Article

Private Sector Vaccine Mandates are Contrary to Free Enterprise

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Maintaining a safe workplace is a legitimate business interest, but trying to attain it via COVID-19 vaccinations is not something a reasonable person would expect given the realistic concerns, and lack of broad acceptance about, the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. 

Private Sector Vaccine Mandates are Contrary to Free Enterprise Read Journal Article

The Work of Human Hands

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While people stayed in houses, sewage plants and wastewater treatment facilities continued to operate. People had to work at power plants to supply electricity to homes. Hands had built cellphone towers and satellites to enable phone and Internet reception. More hands maintained the towers and satellites. Before 2020, we may not have remembered or seen these real people with real hands doing real work in the physical world. Their lives mattered then and they matter now – even while many others stayed home or are still staying home. 

The Work of Human Hands Read Journal Article

What is Populism?

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Political discourse abounds with waywardness in word usage. It’s something you do not want to fall into. Falling into it has two sides, passive and active. The passive vice is going along with the wayward word usage in the discourse you read or listen to. The active vice is discoursing waywardly yourself. Try to be neither sap nor perp of word waywardness. 

What is Populism? Read Journal Article

A Nobel Prize for Moral Hazard

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This is what the “experts” have done to the world, a crisis that began in the laboratories of intellectuals who believe they know a better way than freedom to manage the world. Now the rest of us are forced to watch as they all give awards to each other for a job well done, thus adding another layer of moral hazard: there are literally no professional consequences for being terribly wrong.

A Nobel Prize for Moral Hazard Read Journal Article