Free Republic

The media has riled Americans into a frenzied panic over COVID-19. Concerned, corrupt, and ignorant politicians alike have used fear of COVID-19 to institute neurotic “social distancing” policies. Tens of millions of Americans are now prohibited from working, from seeing loved ones, from worshipping—the nation’s greatest churches were empty this Easter. America’s government has suspended the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and destroyed the economy. And for what? Nothing. New data reveals that COVID-19 is not the pandemic we were promised. The media compares COVID-19 to the Spanish Flu, which killed 50 million people in the wake of World War...

The International Monetary Fund anticipates that the economic fallout from COVID-19 will plunge the world into a recession, the likes of which we have not experienced since the Great Depression. This seems increasingly likely. Over 30 million Americans have already lost their jobs, and the Federal Reserve estimates that this figure could climb to over 47 million in the coming months. Adding fuel to this fire is the fact that 78 percent of American workers live paycheck to paycheck, and over 30 percent have no savings whatsoever. There will be lean times ahead. And to whom will Americans turn for...

Congress is considering H.R. 6666, the “Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act” (“TRACE Act”), a bill by U.S. Representative Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19. The bill ostensibly would achieve that goal by creating “mobile health units” to “conduct diagnostic testing . . . trace and monitor the contacts of infected individuals” and then “support the quarantine of such contacts”—all at the cost of $100 billion. Rush says that “increased testing and contact tracing is the only way we will get back normal and safely reopen our economy.” Essentially, Rush’s position—which is echoed by the bulk...

In World War II, America produced the gauze, iodine, and syringes that allowed allied troops to soldier on in the face of bloodshed and broken bones. Times have changed. Today, America cannot produce the basic medical supplies it needs to fight COVID-19. Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services secretary, told the House Appropriations Committee that America needs 25 times more masks than it currently has stockpiled. Worse still, it turns out that America cannot even manufacture the masks it needs because most of the factories are in China. Evidently, it will take years for domestic mask-makers to fulfill the...

Reuters reports that China will exempt some American agricultural products from its latest round of tariffs. This is welcome news—particularly for our pork and soybean producers who’ve been on the front lines of the trade war. But what does the news really mean? Did China blink? Are they throwing us a bone? Or is just part of Xi Jinping’s 200 IQ 4D underwater chess gambit to win the trade war? The answer begins and ends with the economic data. First up: pigs. China is by far the largest pork consumer on earth, and is expected to consume more than 50...

George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt. When you hear their names what comes to mind? The White House? Possibly. Mount Rushmore? Probably. How blasé. What ought to come to mind are tariffs. Yes, tariffs. Despite the mainstream media’s copious efforts to cast President Trump and those who support tariffs as economically illiterate at best — and as wannabe-Stalinists at worst — in reality most of America’s Founding Fathers and former presidents favored tariffs. In fact, America’s first major piece of legislation was the Tariff Act of 1789. Why? Tariffs are the form of taxation most consistent with the...

J.P. Morgan estimates that President Trump’s tariffs will cost American families up to $1,000 next year. We have heard this before and we’ll hear it again. But the fact is that tariffs have not yet—nor will they likely—increase the cost of living. Further, the myopic obsession with the price of goods ignores the more pressing problem: millions of Americans remain chronically unemployed, and millions more have been reduced to surviving on part-time McJobs and welfare. Turns out, cheap goods aren’t so cheap if you don’t have a job.

CNN reports that President Trump’s aides persuaded him to delay the imposition of the latest round of protective tariffs, previously scheduled for September, until December 15, 2019. How? They claimed new tariffs would “ruin Christmas.” Peter Navarro, Trump’s director of trade and manufacturing policy, defended the move saying that this was Trump’s, “Christmas present to the nation.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only would tariffs not perceptibly increase the price of toys, this schizophrenic shift in policy empowers the president’s political adversaries and enriches greedy multinational corporations and China. It is fairly obvious to anyone who has...

A number of academic studies demonstrate that immigration indeed raises housing prices and rents. Libertad Gonzalez and Francesc Ortega in a 2013 study found that immigration into Spain caused 52 percent of the overall increase in Spain’s real estate market. Another paper published in 2012 by Canadian researchers Ather Akbari and Yigit Aydede found that immigration raised housing and rent prices in Vancouver, although the effect was not large. The authors postulated that the unexpected minor impact may be due to native residents leaving neighborhoods with high immigrant rates—“white flight.” Abeba Mussa, Uwaoma G. Nwaogub, and Susan Pozoc tested this...

Legend says a humble French scribe named Nicolas Flamel discovered the philosopher’s stone—the alchemical secret to physical transmutation. To immortality itself. After turning a half-pound of mercury into gold, fear consumed Flamel: what man could resist the temptations of unlimited wealth and immortality? In a show of Christian humility, Flamel hid his manuscripts and dedicated his life to philanthropy. What remained of his synthetic treasure built several schools, seven churches, and 14 hospitals. He died a lifetime later, in 1418. The Democrats appear to have rediscovered Flamel’s alchemical texts and have used their knowledge of the philosopher’s stone to transform...

President Trump says he will impose a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports beginning September 1. The tariff would affect consumer goods primarily, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs. Cue the histrionics. The Washington Post laments that these tariffs will ruin America’s “holiday” shopping season. The Post cites a study claiming that the price of toys will rise by 17 percent, while the cost of laptops and tablets could increase by $120. Basically, President Trump is the Grinch who will steal Christmas by making toys too expensive. How could he do this to poor little...

An Islamist, a Communist, and a libertarian walk into a bar. The Islamist says submission to Allah is the highest virtue and an ideal society adopts Sharia Law. The Communist strokes his grizzled beard in disagreement. “Religion is the opium of the people. What really matters is equality!” He then explains how Communism fixes inequality caused by bourgeois decadence. The Islamist nods approvingly—after all, decadence is sinful. Finally, the libertarian pipes up: “No, no. Individual liberty is what really matters! Sharia Law and communism are fundamentally immoral because they violate personal freedoms.” The Islamist and communist exchange a furtive glance...

Between 1348 and 1352 a monstrous plague—the Black Death—ravaged Europe. The disease struck young and old, men and women, saint and sinner alike. Half the population died. Whole cities disappeared. Western Civilization was on the brink of collapse. What caused this plague? Bad smells. Foul odors. The stench of decay. This was considered unequivocal, scientific fact—that is until we invented the microscope and discovered that an entire world of miniature animalcules existed right under our noses. In time we realized that these creatures caused illness: germ theory was born, and with it died the centuries-old miasma theory of disease. Received...

Nearly 1,900 years ago, Roman Emperor Hadrian built a great wall across Britain. It was 73 miles long, and divided the Roman province of Britannia from the realms of the “painted men” to the north. Why? The northerners were not particularly dangerous. Even if they were, they could quite easily climb the wall—or row around it! Perhaps more importantly, Queen Boudicca’s rebellion proved that Britannia’s greatest threat was its native Celtic population. And what exactly was Hadrian protecting? Britain’s north was an empty expanse of pastures and forests. Who cares if tattooed peasants herded their sheep in the hills? Rather...

Remittances sent by illegal aliens cost America at least $30 BILLION every year—and this is using the lowest estimate of America's illegal population. Remittances function similarly to a maximally inefficient tax, in that wealth is dispatched from the local economy, effectively reducing the velocity of money to zero. This causes all sorts of liquidity problems in smaller communities, and kills local economies. And for what? To make Carlos Slim rich.

Consumers are paying the price” for President Trump’s tariffs, CNN claims. Millions will feel the pinch; many thousands will lose their jobs. What CNN fails to mention is that millions of Americans already feel the pinch, and millions more have already lost their jobs. Why? Chinese consumers won’t pay the price for American exports: China steals up to $600 billion in American intellectual property (IP) every year. Trump understands that tariffs are a powerful political tool that can — and should — be used to force China to pay for their crimes. Most Americans have only a fuzzy understanding of...

China's "economic miracle"—the period of rapid economic growth & development since the 1980's—was paid for by America. We capitalized China with $5.2 TRILLION in indirect investment, not to mention FDI & technological exports. America made China great again.

UBI is like putting a Band-Aid around America’s ruptured aorta—it might help, but it won’t stop our economy from flat-lining. Here’s why: Andrew Yang thinks automation will result in mass unemployment, and therefore we need a UBI to soften the blow. Both the economic logic and evidence suggests otherwise. Begin with this logic: Employment is determined by the ratio between productivity and output. All other things being equal, higher productivity (getting more done each hour) means fewer jobs, while higher output (making more stuff) means more jobs. If both productivity and output increase at the same rate, then employment does...

Not only does the logic show that carbon taxes in the West will invariably increase global CO2 emissions, but so does the empirical evidence. To begin with, data from the World Bank reveals that China, and other developing countries, produce far more carbon per dollar of economic output (at purchasing power parity) than do Western nations. For example, China produced 0.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide per dollar of economic output in 2014, whereas America produced 0.3 kg of CO2, and Germany produced just 0.2 kg. On top of this, China shows no signs of decreasing its emissions any time soon:...

"…We wonder—and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chase, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place." Published in 1818, Horace Smith’s “Ozymandias” imagines a London long-since abandoned—the English civilization is gone. Collapsed. The city is a new Rome. A half-forgotten memory like Babylon. Troy. Perhaps this is London’s destiny—perhaps it’s ours too. After all, many of America’s greatest cities are decaying before our very eyes. Consider Detroit. Its population plummeted by 63 percent since 1950,...