The pandemic has triggered an explosion of “temporary” government programs. The economist Robert Higgs sees little evidence that governments ever relinquish such newly added scale and power. Writing in City Journal, Robert Tierney argues that politicians and hysterical media have created a “crisis of crises.” We need to be wary, he warns, of political leaders who exploit our fears.
At Least He Paid his Losing Bet
Paul Ehrlich, author of the spectacularly incorrect 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, recently died at 93. Despite his longevity, Ronald Bailey points out in Reason, Ehrlich did not live to see even one of his numerous apocalyptic predictions come true. The world’s population certainly grew, but not merely larger, richer and fatter too. Most famously, Ehrlich once bet economist Julian Simon that the world was approaching economic collapse – but in 1990 had to mail Simon a cheque.
