Free Republic

The coronavirus has scared everyone, from consumers and investors to central bankers and politicians. But one question looms over everything: Are we frightened enough to do what needs to be done? That might seem surprising to say. The fiscal policy response to the coronavirus crisis is coming. It will be big. It will be costly. It will be messy. But it won’t be big enough. A robust fiscal response is an imperative if the U.S. economy is to avoid a deep, lengthy recession or, as some fear, a depression. And it’s going to have to be bigger than many of...

What to do about the U.S. economy in the wake of the Wuhan virus? The answer requires a mix of both short-term suppression and then long-term mitigation. Lots of people didnÂ’t see the COVID-19 pandemic coming. Many prognosticators who didnÂ’t have since found their way into two camps. In the first camp, the occupants are in full panic mode. We should all shut everything down for the time-being, they say. In the second camp, the occupants are borderline dismissive of the Wuhan virus threat. Both sides are completely wrong.The camp dismissive of the virus is dead wrong. Many do this...

Federal and state governments are making a massive gamble about a little-understood new virus. They are betting our future on the most extreme worst-case scenario without considering the costs. Federal and state governments are making a massive gamble about a little-understood new virus. They may not only be betting our entire economy, but our nation’s future. Thus it’s imperative that they not make foolish choices.We shouldn’t allow policy under a Republican president to be driven by a Democrat like Steve Mnuchin, whose overwhelming priority is reassuring Wall Street above all else. Voters don’t vote for Donald Trump to get...

I think I get it. We've all been overthinking it. The Democrats want to create Franklin Delano Roosevelt II. Their savior. The savior of the country after the Great Depression. Gonna jump right to FDR's fourth term with Biden. Pack the courts; interment camps; huge boondoggle infrastructure projects. A 30-40 year legacy eg; 1932 > 1976 And plug in an unlikely substitute; eg; a Truman

After his wife was diagnosed with cancer, Jordan Peterson went on an anti-anxiety drug to cope with the stress. It turned out that the drug was toxic and he was sensitive. His daughter Mikhaila Peterson, who first notified people about the situation in September, recently posted an updated video about Jordan Peterson’s near-death experience. In her September 2019 video, Mikhaila talked about the shock to the family when Tammy Roberts, her mother and Peterson’s wife, was diagnosed with cancer. After a successful surgery, Roberts had a bad reaction and almost died. Because Canadian doctors couldn’t cope with Roberts’ illness, she...

Posts Posted on February 2, 2020 Why Are College Students So Depressed? I enjoy listening to the “Fireside Chats” of Dennis Prager. They’re relaxed, informative, and full of practical wisdom. Recently (in episode 112) he chose to ponder why the rate of depression among college students is the highest ever recorded. Prager provided the following insight:… just about everything that can give you joy and meaning—and they are related—is gone.In large part I think he’s right, at least when you look at college kids as a group. He lists four things that give joy and meaning to life, and...

Everyone has his or her own definition of a political crisis. Mine is when our collective mental health starts having a profound effect on our politics — and vice versa. It cannot be a simple coincidence that the two have declined in tandem. The American Psychiatric Association reported that from 2016 to 2017, the number of adults who described themselves as more anxious than the previous year rose 36 percent. In 2017, more than 17 million American adults had a new diagnosis of a major depressive disorder, as well as three million adolescents ages 12 to 17. Forty million adults...

It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so. Far from viewing the past as a potential source of wisdom and insight, political regimes have a habit of employing history as an ideological weapon, to be distorted and manipulated in the service of present-day ambitions. That's what Winston Churchill meant when he described the history of the Soviet Union as...

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. I think many readers of this article will respond with outrage, and many will see it says things they already knew to be true—and I think these two groups will largely overlap. The most powerful obstacle to confronting a destructive addiction is denial, and collectively we are in denial about pornography. Since it seems somehow relevant, let me state at the outset that I am French. Every fiber of my Latin, Catholic body recoils at puritanism of any sort, especially the bizarre, Anglo-Puritan kind so prevalent in America. I...

"Alcohol is basically pure calories, pure energy, non-nutritive and super toxic at high doses," study co-author Stephen Ilardi, PhD, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Kansas, said in a statement. "Sugars are very similar. We're learning when it comes to depression, people who optimize their diet should provide all the nutrients the brain needs and mostly avoid these potential toxins." This is especially true for those who are prone to seasonal depression, which affects approximately half a million Americans. As with drinking several glasses of wine, eating a box of cookies might provide a temporary feeling...

The alternative is to tell them they’re simply going to die and turn to dust. As a therapist, I’m often asked to explain why depression and anxiety are so common among children and adolescents. One of the most important explanations—and perhaps the most neglected—is declining interest in religion. This cultural shift already has proved disastrous for millions of vulnerable young people. Skip The result? Children or teens who reported attending a religious service at least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had lower risks of mental illness. Weekly attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering,...

In my work as a psychotherapist, one of the first things I try to address with my clients is identifying any areas of their life that might be exacerbating whatever mental health issue they are experiencing. I ask them about their sleep habits, their eating habits, the health of their significant relationships, their exercise habits, significant stressors, and any medication they are prescribed. All of these facets of their life might be worsening their symptoms. For example, not getting enough quality sleep is linked to an increased risk of developing depression. One study found that individuals who struggle with insomnia...

A mother in Texas was found dead alongside her three children on Friday in an apparent triple murder-suicide. Ashley Auzenne, 39, was known to have been battling depression and anxiety in addition to physical ailments such as arthritis and lupus at the time of her death, which was ruled as a suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Her three children, Parrish, 11, Eleanor, 9, and Lincoln, 7, were also killed by gunshots and their mother is the only suspect. She had just finalized a contentious divorce from their father, Murvin Auzenne Jr. Auzenne was a vocal advocate for stricter gun...

(CBS) Do women who have an abortion risk their mental health? A provocative new study shows that women who have an abortion face an increased risk for mental health problems including substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. "Results indicate quite consistently that abortion is associated with moderate to highly increased risks of psychological problems subsequent to the procedure," the authors wrote in the study, published in the September 1 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. For the study, researchers analyzed data on 877,000 women, including 164,000 who had an abortion. They found women who had an abortion experienced an 81...

Source: AP Photo/Craig Ruttle The great Austrian economist Murray Rothbard elucidated, “Before the massive government interventions of the 1930s, all recessions were short-lived.”[1] The deceptive narrative of collectivists about the “Roaring Twenties” and the New Deal goes like this: Capitalists and speculators went wild with greed in “The Roaring Twenties,” leading to a stock market crash and hard times. Banks closed, once prosperous workers sold apples on street-corners or became hobos in shanty-towns, while Republican President Herbert Hoover did nothing for the destitute and suffering nation. Then FDR arrived on the scene, inspiring new hope with his golden words...

Lincoln "told Me that he felt like Committing Suicide often," remembered Mentor Graham, a schoolteacher... Abraham Lincoln fought clinical depression all his life, and if he were alive today, his condition would be treated as a "character issue"—that is, as a political liability. His condition was indeed a character issue: it gave him the tools to save the nation. With Lincoln we have a man whose depression spurred him, painfully, to examine the core of his soul; whose hard work to stay alive helped him develop crucial skills and capacities, even as his depression lingered hauntingly; and whose inimitable character...

With all of the social and personal turmoil that develops during the teenage years, a new study finds teens who hold off on dating have better social skills, are happier, and are less depressed. This finding goes against American culture in terms of every movie or television show that portrays teenagers in high school. Some believe that dating is just a part of being a teenager. Forming a romantic relationship for the first time can help in a teenager's own self-esteem. Researchers at the University of Georgia say that's true, but they've also found that not dating could be even...

Transience is the very essence of the entertainment business, unpredictability its warp and weft. Early this month, the market research and data analytics firm YouGov published the results of a startling poll. According to interviews with 1,254 adult Americans, 30 percent of millennials have no best friends, 27 percent have no close friends and 22 percent have no friends at all. Not surprisingly, the report named them “the loneliest generation.” But loneliness is all around and perhaps nowhere more profoundly than in Hollywood. Here’s what surprised me: that the statistics weren’t worse, for older people as well as millennials. Look...

There’s no better way to get a window into the complicated world of a musician like Scott Stapp than by listening to their music. Scott Stapp’s latest album, The Space Between the Shadows, which dropped back in July, is driven by the song “Purpose for Pain.” The standout single mines the tumultuous period the singer endured since his last record in 2013 for inspiration. “Purpose for Pain” clearly carries a potent message, with a chorus that hits with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer: There’s gotta be more / Cause this life is insane / Gotta turn this around /...

We are the middle children of history with no purpose or place. Our generation has no Great Depression, no Great War. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives… We have been raised by television to believe that we’ll be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars – but we won’t… And we’re very, very pissed off. With the release of David Fincher’s Fight Club in the aftermath of the Columbine high school killings, fears about representational violence resounded in the popular press. This response was not surprising in that Fight Club tells the story of an unnamed...