There’s an avalanche of apocalyptic predictions regarding the global march of the Wuhan coronavirus. Nor are conspiracy theories hard to find. Richard Epstein charts a stubbornly independent but intellectually rigorous middle path in arguing that the dire predictions ignore key aspects of viral epidemiology. Writing on the Hoover Institution’s website, Epstein’s pandemic scenario is serious – but hopeful.

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


