If President Trump has an ounce of decency, he should promptly pardon Edward Snowden, who at a very young age, with a promising career and his whole life ahead of him, put everything on the line to protect us from the very people who are supposed to be protecting us. Let’s hope that Trump does the right thing.

This was indeed Red Dawn. The invader was not the virus but rather governments who imagined that with enough edicts and guns they could intimidate the virus into going away. They tried to scare the disease away with rhetoric and violence but in the end, governments have only one ability: the capacity to control people. The sooner we recognize the real enemy is government overreach, the sooner we can get on with making sure nothing like this ever happens again.

There isn’t a "right" combination of wages, benefits, and other perquisites, and the pattern of things that ‘work’ for people is not planned by a central authority. It emerges from trial and error in the market.

In ancient times, mankind extended the division of labor across tribes, turning enemies into friends. Later came trade across national boundaries, with similar largely peaceful effects. Now, humans are prepared to extend it still further: into the final frontier. Doux commerce is coming to the stars. NASA just made a ‘giant leap for mankind.’ Everyone who cares about human wealth and welfare should heartily thank them.

We are not to ask certain questions, according to the politicians, the experts, our friends. It’s over when we say it’s over, they say. We must keep each other safe. So cover your nose and mouth. Stand six feet apart. Stay home. Comply.

As an educator myself, I am happy to grant that teachers produce value for students, and for society. But even the most marginal teacher, at the worst and least motivated public school, can’t-wait-for-retirement clock puncher, makes far more than the marginal basketball player. You can’t compare the marginal unit of water, or teachers, with diamonds.

It is unclear how many grant competitions remain to be adjudicated at ED and other agencies, or how much money is at stake. But when schools, colleges, corporations, mayors, and governors say that ‘health and safety are our highest priorities,’ we should take them at their word. None of them should make any fuss when the federal government withholds funding in the name of health and safety. Otherwise, their statements about their priorities would reek of hypocrisy.

Experts have been responsible for eugenic policies in the past and forced sterilizations in the United States until relatively recently. It is hard to imagine a more intrusive and life-altering event than forced sterilization. All in all, while politicians are the bane of any democracy, there are lots of reasons to think it better to give political power to elected representatives than to unelected experts who may mean well and so often do enormous harm.

Private-sector job openings are recovering but labor market dynamics remain challenging for workers and small businesses alike.

The key to getting wealthy in a capitalistic society is to produce something so valuable that millions of people want to trade for it.