The Bob Zadek Show

Frank Buckley’s Predictions from American Secession are Looking Pretty Good Right Now

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Libertarians — myself included — have held out hope for a federalist revival that would shift power from the Federal Government back to the states, where it belongs. I even published a book of my favorite interviews on this theme, Power to the States: How Federalism 2.0 Can Make America Governable Again.

One of the chapters featured the unexpected rise in popularity of federalism in California (hardly a bastion of libertarian thought). On many issues, a majority of Californians want to resist the Federal Government — in some cases favoring even stricter standards, such as in the case of automobile emissions standards, while simultaneously seeking to relax Trump’s strict immigration controls.

One of the incredible civics lessons we will soon obtain from the Coronavirus outbreak has to do with the limits of “Federalism 2.0.” California Governor Gavin Newsom now appears to be positioning the Golden State as a Nation State. We have our own plan for re-opening the economy, which is allegedly based on “data” and “science” rather than politics.

While the Supreme Court has clearly upheld the states’ authority to implement quarantines, we are in somewhat uncharted territory as places like California, Oregon and Washington may attempt to extend the shelter-in-place guidelines — forcing healthy Americans to stay indoors — for an unreasonably long period of time.

Is the brewing showdown between President Trump and Governor Newsom an omen of a future Civil War, or could California legally secede from the Union without the need for a bloody war? Or, perhaps will we find a new balance of powers that eliminates the need for either?

Back in January, when I interviewed Frank Buckley on his latest book American Secession, I didn’t think a “Cal-Exit” could be so near on the horizon.

If Buckley’s thesis is correct, then Californians are desperate to regain their winning streak in the culture war, which ended when Trump was elected. Will they use the COVID-19 outbreak as a pretext to break with the rest of the country if a Trump re-election seems imminent?

This certainly isn’t the Federalism 2.0 I was hoping for.

Listen to the show to get Frank’s always insightful and humorous analysis of the “Governor-in-Chief’s” strategic use of terms like “nation-state” and “exports” in responding to the Federal Government’s alleged abdication of responsibility.

Alex Tabarrok on the CDC and FDA’s ‘Failure of Historic Proportions’

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College students who are assigned Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok’s Modern Principles of Economics learn the twin concepts of market failure and government failure. To teach the former without the latter, as some textbooks do, is to present a lop-sided picture of the world and to romanticize governmental solutions that often do more harm than good.

Coronavirus is making this lesson tragically real, as federal agencies like the CDC and FDA have been caught off-guard by the outbreak and subsequently stoked the public’s fears while failing to provide solutions.

I was recently joined by Marginal Revolution blogger and George Mason University economics chair Alex Tabarrok. He explained how these agencies’ responses to COVID-19 has been a ‘Failure of Historic Proportions.’ Alex was recently interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie on the subject, and elaborates in our interview on the urgent need for government to foster the conditions for markets to function.

Alex also talked about the hindrances to new drug approval per the framework he developed with FDAReview.org.

Watch Alex’s free online economics courses at MRUniversity.com and listen or read the transcript to understand how the economy can recovery faster with the help of better policy and the “invisible hand.”

Don Boudreaux channels Robert Higgs and Friedrich Bastiat on the economic
and political errors being rushed through the Coronavirus pandemic.

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Last week I shared my curated COVID-19 reading list, which is keeping me relaxed and confident in my belief that we are overreacting. While we should worry about the incursions of civil and economic freedoms being brought about in response, people like Jacob Sullum of Reason and Jeffrey Tucker of AIER are doing a service by calming people down about the virus itself.

Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek also deserves special mention for leading me to most of my trusted sources with his blog’s daily links. It’s hard to keep up with all of the outstanding writing he’s highlighted over the past weeks, including his own increasingly relevant review of Robert Higgs’s Crisis and Leviathan for the American Institute for Economic Research, and a must-read article for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Essential Questions about Essential Medicine.

Twitter has reportedly begun to censor non-certified-expert advice on matters related to the coronavirus, so I will limit this Sunday’s show to the subject of economics and politics where we are still free to opine (for now). I predict that future economics and political science students will look back in horror at this period – not for the mortality rate, which appears to be marginally higher than an average flu season – but for the acquiescence to draconian restrictions, unprecedented spending, and enlargement of state, local and federal bureaucracy (not to mention the failure of basic functions by the existing apparatus, i.e., FDA).

Most media analysis misses what Frédéric Bastiat called “that which is unseen.” Dead bodies being carted away by truck to the morgue is a striking image, and is seen by millions on media loop. Business closures, economic hardship, and looming inflation are harder to see and thus get downplayed in the calculus.

Trump’s “VERY BIG & BOLD” $2 trillion stimulus produces highly visible benefits in the short-term, but the costs are unseen – postponed to be paid by future generations.

Don returned to the show to help me settle the question on all thinking people’s minds: is it worth it?

Is it worth the loss of liberty?

Is it worth trillions in damage to the economy?

Is it worth the separation from friends, family, and the myriad economic relationships that have been severed?

For the sake of argument, Don and I will assume that the more dire predictions about mortality are true.

Join us in asking the hard but important questions on the show of idea - not attitude.

Jacob Sullum helps Bob look at the latest data on Coronavirus calmly, and
weigh it against the economic controls being used to counter it.

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While the COVID-19 scare has forced many businesses to close, politicians around the world are having a field day. The people are scared, and once again seem more than willing to hand over their economic freedom in the name of safety. Ostensibly, the rationale of “lives not livelihoods” is beneath this stripping away of our liberties. It is only “temporary,” we are told – just as the income tax and PATRIOT Act - were merely temporary measures to address extraordinary circumstances of WWII and 9/11 respectively.

In a recent piece, “An Epidemic Big Enough to Accommodate Everyone’s Wish List,” (3/18/20) Reason.com Senior Editor Jacob Sullum notes how politicians from both parties are using the crisis to advance their agenda. Bernie Sanders is pushing Medicare-for-All, while Trump doubles down on his border wall.

In doing so, government is complicit with the mainstream media, which happily spits out the most dire scenarios – reporting on every new case as proof the sky is falling while ignoring new data suggesting that we are overreacting.

In response, I have limited my information intake to a select trusted group and am calm, relaxed, optimistic, and comfortable in the conclusions and observations I have made. Being selective has made a profound difference in how I feel about the world and the confidence I have in my own decision making.

I invite you to try it. A few important reminders:

Newly discovered cases ≠ new cases

Mainstream media hijacks our emotions to sell us advertisements

"Temporary" restrictions on freedom are never temporary

Government always thinks about how to expand its power at the expense of the people during times of crisis.

So, who should you follow? For starters, try Reason Magazine, Cafe Hayek, American Institute for Economic Research, and The Cato Institute.

Jacob Sullum has been particularly prolific – covering all angles of the virus, from the unrealistic worst-case scenarios to the constitutional considerations of banning non-essential business.

Jacob joined me for the full hour to discuss whether the aggressive control measure against COVID-19 are worth it. He’ll also help explain why politicians – in the words of Rahm Emanuel – “never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Jacob’s writings over the past few weeks also reveal Governor Andrew Cuomo as the political opportunist par excellence, but he has plenty of competition.

To get the complete picture (without the hysteria), join my conversation with Jacob Sullum, and learn my secret to staying sane as a libertarian on lockdown – this Sunday, 8-9am PACIFIC – on the show of ideas, not attitude.

How to Restore the California Dream with Lawrence J. McQuillan

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Solve this mystery: Why does it cost three times as much to rent a U-Haul going from San Francisco to Austin than going in the other direction?

Answer: When all the movers are heading one direction (SF to Austin), you have to pay somebody to drive them back.

Lawrence McQuillan, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation at the Independent Institute, connects the dots in his new report on California’s dysfunctional housing policy. How to Restore the California Dream explains how the “Golden State” became the poster child for high housing costs and, relatedly, homelessness.

Through a combination of regulations, zoning taxes, and higher labor costs associated with union requirements, we’ve pushed thousands of low and middle-income residents to other states (or in the extremes, to the streets). Lawrence finds that California would need another 4 million additional housing units just to stabilize prices, yet this is impossible given the amount of red tape.

As lower income people look for cheaper and cheaper housing, they crowd out those already living on the edge. Thus the homelessness has become a state of emergency.

Last time I had Lawrence on my show, we discussed California’s pension crisis. This Sunday, we’ll discuss housing and homelessness, and how a proposed Constitutional amendment could resolve the affordability crisis.

Finally, I ask Lawrence to define a “housing shortage,” which I argue cannot exist by definition. Are exorbitant housing costs simply the price we pay for living the California Dream?