Potpourri
==> Holy crap, look at the turn this interview with Richard Epstein ends up taking.
==> CDC makes really dumb mistake (?) by mixing results of different types of corona tests.
==> Contrary to most online libertarians, I have been beating the pro-mask (for vulnerable people and any non-coerced businesses) drum for a while, so let me acknowledge that my go-to mainstream medical organization, CIDRAP, is now getting iffy about it. I still suspect a lot of this is driven by, “Save the masks for health care workers,” but I can’t deny that CIDRAP published something against mask policies.
==> To give you an example of some of the misleading anti-mask stuff: Check out this scientific article. They come out against masks, and yet their own results show that even the surgical mask reduced how much virus ended up in the petri dish. The people pushing masks aren’t saying, “Even a cloth mask will protect you for sure,” rather they are saying, “It reduces the amount of virus an infected person can pump out, so widespread masking in crowded areas will reduce the transmission rate.” This study’s results totally support that, even though the authors give conclusions that bolster those saying, “Science doesn’t support masks.”
BMS ep 121: Michael Boldin on Hanging Out With 2 Live Crew and Sticking It to the NSA
Audio here, video below:
BMS ep 120: Babylon Bee Guys Interview Bob on the Fed, Krugman, and Jesus
Audio here, video below:
Yet Another Non Sequitur in the Coronavirus Debates
Steve Landsburg links to a Jeff Tucker article explaining that Woodstock occurred during a flu pandemic. Jeff writes:
The flu spread from Hong Kong to the United States, arriving December 1968 and peaking a year later. It ultimately killed 100,000 people in the U.S., mostly over the age of 65, and one million worldwide.
Lifespan in the US in those days was 70 whereas it is 78 today. Population was 200 million as compared with 328 million today. It was also a healthier population with low obesity. If it would be possible to extrapolate the death data based on population and demographics, we might be looking at a quarter million deaths today from this virus. So in terms of lethality, it was as deadly and scary as COVID-19 if not more so, though we shall have to wait to see.
Now Steve uses the opportunity to explain the different responses as being rational (as is his wont).
But I just want to make a much simpler point: The rhetorical force of Jeff’s article is (my paraphrase): “Hey, we had arguably an even worse contagious outbreak back in 1968-69, and we didn’t shut the economy down back then. So why are we doing it now, for something that’s not killing as many people?!”
Do you see why that’s a weird argument, that (a) sounds awesome to people who already agree with Jeff on this but (b) sounds patently absurd to people who already disagree with him?
Jeff is showing that when the US didn’t lock down, more (adjusted) people died than is happening now, with the lockdowns. And that is somehow supposed to show the lockdowns are a bad idea.
If you don’t see why that’s a strange argument, try this one: “Surgeons didn’t wash their hands in the 1700s, and way more people died during operations back then compared to today. So why are we falling for CNN’s hype about ‘unsafe hospitals’ nowadays?”
Or if that’s too contrived, how about this?
“Antiwar activists are whining about casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. But during the years 1968-69, about 29,000 Americans died in foreign war. We didn’t suddenly end the wars and bring the troops back home then, even though the death toll was much worse than nowadays.”
Before I end, let me say, as usual: I AM VERY MUCH AGAINST THE POLITICAL LOCKDOWNS. BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO WHAT THEY WANT, SETTING POLICIES AND MAKING THEIR OWN ASSESSMENTS OF RISK.
Murphy Twin Spin
==> My latest chapter in Understanding Money Mechanics, this one on Austrian business cycle theory.
==> Ep. 79 of the Lara-Murphy Show, where Carlos and I discuss whether the Fed’s inflation threatens the validity of IBC (the Infinite Banking Concept).
Bob Murphy Show ep. 119: Guido Hulsmann on the French Lockdown, His Biography of Mises, and His Novel Theory of Interest
An interesting discussion, I wish we had had more time. Video below, audio here.
Contra Krugman ep. 223: Krugman unwittingly agrees Fed has driven stocks since 2007
I handle this one all by my lonesome…
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