4. When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason. The discussion critiques the indiscriminate government funding of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), which subsidized well-endowed institutions and missed future innovators, thereby slowing the natural process of working out what is "good and what's bad." Government lending programs inevitably come with strings attached and impair credit. John Tamny suggests that individuals possess a protected "right to contract" and work, regardless of state mandates, citing Lochner v. New York. Ultimately, the sources stress that economic growth and freedom are the strongest defenses against disease, highlighted by the rapid success of private enterprise (like Pfizer) in vaccine development. Freedom must be the readymade answer to future pandemics.
1918
Retry
View all episodes
