Coping with Crisis:
ASI webinar on the response to COVID-19

We’re all currently in the midst of self-isolation, but that won’t stop the Adam Smith Institute holding governments to account for their responses to COVID-19. 

In our first ASI Webinar, we will be discussing how various countries are tackling the crisis—and what they could be doing better. This will be the first in a series of webinars examining the politics and economics of the ongoing pandemic.

Each of our panellists will discuss the policy response to COVID-19 from their country of expertise: Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong respectively. We will then have a Q&A session during which webinar participants can quiz the ASI about how free marketeers are responding to the situation.

The numbers in the webinar are limited on a first-come basis. We will also live stream it on Facebook. It will also be possible to rewatch it after the event.

Panellists:

• Matthew Lesh (Head of Research, Adam Smith Institute & Adjunct Fellow, Institute of Public Affairs, Australia) on Australia
• Morgan Schondelmeier (Head of External Affairs, Adam Smith Institute) on the United States
• Sam Bowman (Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute and incoming Director of Competition Policy at the International Center for Law and Economics) on the United Kingdom
• Saloni Dattani (Twitter Meme Queen at the Adam Smith Institute and PhD student in Psychiatric Genetics at King's College London/University of Hong Kong) on Hong Kong

Details:

Date: Tuesday, 31st March 2020
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm 

The webinar will begin at 6.00pm, with an audience Q&A session taking place at approximately 6:45pm. The webinar will conclude at 7:00pm.

We're all libertarians in this crisis, actually

We’re all currently in the midst of self-isolation but that won’t stop the Adam Smith Institute holding governments to account for their responses to COVID-19. 

In our second ASI Webinar we will be discussing the oft-repeated phrase by socialists and communitarians, that liberalism and libertarianism is at an end during and after this public health crisis. 

We disagree. Our fiscal and political response should match the sole imperative of government to prioritise saving their citizens from harm. Regulations are already being pared back or suspended across the world, and many people are crying out for their liberties to return as soon as possible. This crisis proves that liberalism has a bright future. Neoliberal ideas provide the right answers to issues as they emerge and a blueprint for what should be done after.

The numbers in the webinar are limited on a first-come basis. We will also live stream it on Facebook. It will also be possible to rewatch it after the event.

Panellists:

• Matthew Kilcoyne (Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute)
• Shoshana Weissmann is the Head of Digital Media at the R Street Institute & policy fellow focusing on Occupational licensing reform, the Supreme Court of the United States, and social media regulation.
• Steven Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Economics at George Washington University and a Visiting Scholar at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Australian National University. Steven has been instrumental in explaining the need for governments to pare down economic activity during the pandemic, but also fill the gap businesses are experiencing in revenues due to a contraction in demand and restrictions on supply.
• Madeline Grant is Assistant Comment Editor at the Daily Telegraph and a Sunday Telegraph columnist.

Details:

Date: Tuesday, 7th April 2020
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm 

The webinar will begin at 6.00pm, with an audience Q&A session taking place at approximately 6:45pm. The webinar will conclude at 7:00pm.