Cafe HayekCafe Hayek - where orders emerge - Article Feed
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Some Links
Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:58 AM PDT
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(Don Boudreaux)
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Heres the first of a two-part series, at EconLog, by David Henderson on why
he is unfavorably impressed with Tyler Cowens reasons for rejecting the
Great Barrington Declaration. A slice (coming immediately after David
quotes Tylers complaint the Declaration fails to emphasize data):
We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a
thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young.
That’s data, and pretty relevant data.
Cowen points out correctly that the best policies of today are [probably]
not the best policies two months from now. But the big advantage of the
focus the Declaration proposes is that it allows for that.
Dr. Sunetra Gupta one of the three authors of the Great Barrington
Declaration defends the reality of herd immunity against those who dismiss
it.
Mike Yeadon explains why he believes that Britains Scientific Advisory
Group on Emergencies (SAGE) vastly overestimates the dangers of covid-19.
(HT Lyle Albaugh) Its a long read but one that, in my opinion, is
worthwhile.
I always enjoy being a guest on Dan Profts radio program.
Robby Soave reports on the perverse priorities of officials at the San
Francisco Unified School District.
John Cochrane is trying to understand the political left.
Juliette Sellgrens podcast with Jonathan Rauch on cancel culture is superb.
Heres part 8 of George Selgins excellent series on the New Deal.
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Quotation of the Day
Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:18 AM PDT
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(Don Boudreaux)
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is from page 207 of George Will’s great 2019 book, The Conservative
Sensibility:
As government has grown bigger in size, scope, and pretensions, it has
become more attentive to small factions that do not claim to represent the
will of the majority. The most that each faction claims is that a majority
would favor what the faction favors if the majority were thinking clearly.
Or that it knows better what is best for the majority. Or that it does not
give a tinker’s damn what other factions think.
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Competition Is a Discovery Procedure
Posted: 16 Oct 2020 09:55 AM PDT
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(Don Boudreaux)
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Brink Lindsey and Sam Hammond have a fan in one Rodger Griff:
Mr. Griff:
Thanks for your follow-up e-mail.
You wonder how I “can argue that government officials know too little to
succeed at industrial policy and at the same time think that private
businessmen and investors know enough to succeed in business.” I am, you
say, “contradictory.”
But I’m not contradictory. My argument is that no one knows which products,
methods of production, and kinds of businesses are better today for the
home economy and which will be better tomorrow for this economy. This
ignorance cannot be overcome by econometric studies, committee meetings,
thinktank position papers, or democratic elections. The only way to
discover what are better uses of resources is market competition. Only
competition among producers who are free to enter and leave the market –
producers who are allowed to gain customers never through force but only
through persuasion – will reveal which uses of resources are worthwhile and
which aren’t. Such knowledge is simply unknowable in the abstract and
beforehand.
I hesitate to use sports analogies, because they too easily mislead.
(Economic competition shares some features with sports competitions, but is
in many other ways entirely different.) But here’s one analogy that’s
perhaps worthwhile:
Proponents of industrial policy are akin to an Olympics official who,
before a foot race is run, declares confidently that his research reveals
to him that the fastest runner is Jones – and therefore orders that the
race not be run. The official then, with much fanfare and
self-satisfaction, hands a gold medal to Jones.
Clearly, this academic method of discovering who is the fastest runner is
fraudulent. Equally fraudulent at discovering better uses of resources is
industrial policy.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at
the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
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