Monthly Archives: March 2020

Classical economic policy and the present recession

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Whatever anyone might believe about the dangers of the Corona Virus, there is no doubt that the American economy, in fact every economy, will head into a recession. But as I have tried to explain, the downturn cannot be understood as due to a fall in demand as modern economic theory would have it but will be due to a massive structural shift in our economies. It is not that we will be buying less because we are saving more, but we will be buying not just less, because we will be producing less, but we will not be buying many goods and services we had been buying until concerns about the virus became so general. Lots of forms of production, such as air travel and restaurant meals, will experience a major contraction in demand because of the fears that certain activities are now forbidden or many people have self-isolated.

As every pre-Keynesian economist once knew,  recessions do occur but NEVER because a deficiency of demand. When they occur, they are the result of a structural shift in the underlying economy. We are now in the midst of one of the most profound shifts in the international economy ever seen. Just the restaurant trade is facing a major fall in demand, along with airline travel, tourism and lots of other parts of the economy. The structure of the economy is under immense stress. The downturn which is inevitable is due to a structural shift, not a fall in demand. Everyone once understood that. Since 1936, since the publication of Keynes’s General Theory, this then-universal understanding of why recessions occur has disappeared utterly from economic discourse. I used to think the pre-Keynesian conception was obvious, but have discovered to my amazement that virtually no one any longer understands this. We are all Keynesians now, except for a handful of others who have retained this older, now abandoned, approach. But what has amazed me now even more is that the approach taken by Donald Trump clearly takes a classical approach to dealing with the economic fall-out that is now inevitable.

Nothing will prevent a downturn now, but what must be done is:

(1) ensure those who are now being temporarily displaced from their paid employment are receiving cash in hand so that they can buy what they need,

(2) businesses must have an immediate fall in production costs along with cash injections so that businesses which will return to profitability after this disruption are able to maintain their cash flow and pay their bills not just so that they can stay in business but that so too can their suppliers

It is the structure of demand that needs to be preserved, not the level. The level of demand will fall, but the crucial issue is that the structure of demand will also be badly affected so that the underlying structure of supply is maintained. It is to maintain the structure of the economy that matters. It is maintaining the structure that is crucial, not the totality. Demand is constituted by supply and supply will be falling all over the place.

See the airline industry as a clear example. People will one day wish to fly as they have always done, but the airlines must be preserved in the meantime. Virtually every industry is in exactly the same position. No revenue at the moment to meet their costs, but a certain expectation that demand will return in the near future. The aim must now be to preserve as much as possible.

The photo above was taken while watching Fox with the proposed government approach stated as follows:

RPT:PROPOSED GOVT STIMULUS PKG WILL INCLUDE $1200 FOR SINGLE AMERICANS AND $2400 FOR COUPLES

As we think of things today, it has to be presented as a “stimulus” as if the aim is to raise the level of demand. It is, nevertheless, an approach to dealing with a structural shift in the economy, and the aim is to preserve as much of the economy as can be preserved for when things return to normal. The policy proposal is discussed here: GOP coronavirus stimulus bill unveils $1,200 checks for public.

“Recovery checks of up to $1,200 will be put into the hands of most taxpayers, providing cash immediately to individuals and families,” the Senate Finance Committee said in a statement.

President Trump requested that the legislation include the direct payments to boost consumer purchasing. The White House requested two $1,000 waves of checks to all taxpayers, but some Republicans viewed the idea skeptically.

On the business side, there is also this:

The package also includes $300 billion in small business loans, which would be forgiven if the firms don’t lay off workers.

Another $58 billion in loans would go to airlines suffering a demand plunge worse than after 9/11, with another $150 billion of loans and loan guarantees to other businesses.

This is obviously also intended as a means to maintain the structure of the economy, not as a “stimulus” to lift demand. Among the good luck of the moment is that the President is a former businessman who understands the problems facing business and what needs to be done immediately to minimise the long-term harm to the economy. I can only hope the same approach is taken across the world.

Having just finished the first round of editing of my next book, Classical Economics and the Modern Economy, let me recommend it to one and all once it is finally published in June. It is even possible that classical economic theory may once again come back into fashion. The benefit to our economies and future standard of living would be massive.

Inoculated from the CoronaV panic

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From Ace of Spades.

In the past week, a story that keeps getting written and re-written by young journalists is the stubborn refusal of older Americans to panic about the Wuhan Virus. Pretty much every story reads: “Why is it that a healthy young American like me – in the demographic most likely to survive Coronavirus – is panicking right now, while my Boomer parents/grandparents, who are highly vulnerable to death by Coronavirus, refuse to panic or radically change their lifestyle?”

Here are just three examples. No need to click – they all read the same.

BUSINESS INSIDER: “Frustrated Millenials Say They Can’t Get Their Aging Parents to Cancel Their Cruises, Stop Going To Church, And Take Coronavirus Seriously”

VOGUE: “Why Are So Many Baby Boomers in Denial Over the Coronavirus?”

BUZZFEED NEWS: “How Millennials Are Talking To Their Boomer Relatives About The Coronavirus”

Although I’m a little too young to be considered a Boomer, I am over 50, and I’d be glad to explain why the over-50 demographic is not panicking in the fashion that our young, know-it-all journalists would like. It’s simple. We’ve been through a lifetime of media-hyped hysterias and apocalyptic predictions. If not complete hoaxes, they were falsely reported or over-hyped. Here are a few:

Overpopulation and Global Famine: This was promised not just globally, but domestically too. We were supposed to have run out of food and descended into global starvation a long time ago. All the experts agreed.

Day Care Center Child Molestations: This hysteria sent many innocent people to jail. Local and national media fanned the flames with accounts of “numbers growing daily” and videos of anguished parents. It was a fraud perpetrated by highly credentialed “experts” who believed that pretty much every child exposed to an adult had been molested. The children just needed help remembering it. Those of us who saw through the hysteria were muzzled, because to question the veracity of the hysteria invited accusations that you too were a child molester. It was like Salem in 1693. The bravest journalist I’ve ever read is the WSJ’s Dorothy Rabinowitz, for daring to unravel the terror and how it spread.

Killer Bees: We treat it as a joke now, but we were promised an invasion of swarming “Africanized” bees that would kill livestock and children. It was soon going to be unsafe to even go outside in the southern US without thick layers of protective clothing. All the experts agreed.

Killer Mold: Toxic mold in the ‘90s was kind of like radioactive waste, only deadlier. Or at least that’s what the media had us believing. The terror of discovering mold in schools was met with media alerts, school shutdowns, and local TV stations filming panicked parents as they picked up their crying children, just moments before the tikes were engulfed by the attacking mold.

Global Cooling: A “consensus of scientists” assured me this was real, and that its impact on agriculture would probably lead to my death by starvation.

Global Warming: According to “scientific” predictions from yet another “consensus of scientists,” the Arctic should now be ice free, snowfalls a thing of the past, and New York’s West Side Highway under water.

It goes on and on. Acid Rain. Peak Oil. Ozone. Alar Apples. Y2K.

Maybe the Wuhan Virus is finally “The Big One.” But after decades of the media fraudulently screaming “APOCALYPSE IS IMMINENT!!!” it is not irrational for Boomers to dismiss the latest hysteria. In Aesop’s fable about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” the moral of the story isn’t that the townsfolk should have believed the boy, the moral is that the boy shouldn’t have destroyed his credibility by falsely screaming wolf time and again.

Thirty years from now, the millennials who are currently aghast at their parents for not panicking, will themselves be jaded by decades of hysteria, and they too will be just as skeptical of “Apocalypse 2050!!!.”

Should seniors – and everyone – be super vigilant about hygiene and sanitizing right now? Absolutely. But should they engage in hair-pulling hysteria as demanded by young know-it-alls? Of course not.

I also add in Uri Geller, Chariots of the Gods, and if you are really well back to the first of us in the post-War generation, Immanuel Velikovsky, never mind existing communism, socialism and Maoist China. This modern generation, they’ll be sorry when we’re gone.

Cut public service salaries by 20%

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Aside from essential services, of course. As for the run of the mill public servants, of which there are hardly any other kind, they should be part of the solution to the economic challenges we face. The greatest economic problem are the structural shifts in the economy which will affect private sector employees alone. Maintaining cash flow in the hands of individuals so that they can purchase the goods and services they need is essential.

It is also important that the structure of demand is maintained to the greatest extent possible so that we do not find businesses that will thrive when we return to normal times have disappeared.

If there are sacrifices to make, those whose jobs are never threatened because of public service contracts should be asked to contribute their fair share.

TEACHING MOMENT: Having just finished my first round of editing of my next book, Classical Economics and the Modern Economy, let me recommend it to one and all once it is finally published in June. Meantime.

Recessions do occur but NEVER because a deficiency of demand. When they occur, they are the result of a structural shift in the underlying economy. We are now in the midst of one of the most profound shifts in the international economy ever seen. Just the restaurant trade is facing a major fall in demand, along with airline travel, tourism and lots of other parts of the economy. The structure of the economy is under stress. The downturn which is inevitable is due to a structural shift, not a fall in demand. Everyone once understood that. Since 1936, it has disappeared utterly from economic discourse. I used to think this was obvious, but the reason I wrote this book was because I discovered that virtually no one understands this. We are all Keynesians now, except for myself and a handful of others. But there are others. After the failures of the stimulus after the GFC I thought there would be more, but obtuseness in settled theory is universal.

Nothing will prevent a downturn now, but what you must do is (1) ensure those who are now being temporarily displaced from their paid employment are receiving cash in hand so that they can buy what they need, and also so that businesses which will return to profitability after this disruption are able to maintain their cash flow. (2) It is the structure of demand that needs to be preserved, not the level. The level of demand will fall, but the crucial issue is that the structure of demand will also be badly affected. It is to maintain the structure that is crucial, not the totality. Demand is constituted by supply and supply will be falling all over the place (see Qantas). I only wish the Keynesian virus was not as virulent as ever.

“It comes from China”

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The above tweet and the text below are via Scott Johnson at Powerline.

The White House press corps performed at a shamefully low level in yesterday’s daily briefing, yet they represent the top ranks of their profession. A few observers took notice. Among them are PJ Media’s Victoria Taft in “Trump Calmly Explains to Accusing Reporter Why He Calls a Virus From China – a Virus From China” and Breitbart’s Kyle Olson in “PBS Reporter Repeatedly Says ‘Kung Flu’ While Asking POTUS if It’s Appropriate.” I have posted the tweet below with the video clip of the ABC News reporter in action. Her voice seethes with contempt. How stupid can you get?

Andrew McCarthy explains for anyone who cares in the Hill column “Trump called it the ‘Wuhan coronavirus’ for a legal — and commonsensical — reason.” It’s not difficult. These folks are fighting it. They don’t want to get it right and they proudly display their animus.

Extra credit: Michael Auslin, RCP, “Beijing Fears COVID-19 Is Turning Point for China, Globalization.”

The left-media virus is more virulent and dangerous than what you find out from them in their so-called news

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All just taken from Lucianne.com. No story on the CoronaV on the first page when I opened it to look has been left out. All provide yet more evidence that the media are lying swine, in cahoots with the left. No one knows where this ends up, but there’s more to the story than you see in the papers or on the ABC. Things may be as bad as they say, but they also may not be that bad, and may even be getting better. But they are all in a hopeful mood that many of us will die and Donald Trump will no longer be president and Joe Biden will replace him. They really are evil, and there is no exaggeration intended in saying that. They are just vile.

No one really knows where this is heading, but you will only get the darkest stories and the most negative projections from the media, and that is a worldwide phenomenon. It’s a major problem that you cannot trust what you find in the media at a time like this. The BBC made its reputation reporting the events of WWII accurately so that when a positive Allied story was reported, the Germans took it as a true story. The media is no longer like that. What they write is filtered through what they wish to be true. and for reasons known best to themselves they wish the coronavirus to be as bad as it can possibly be.

Dark Money Progressive Groups Spending
Millions to Politicize Coronavirus, Spread Fear
Proving once again that
progressives are anti-American.
–
The Media Is Even More
Garbage Than Usual
The demise of the Fourth Estate is complete.
=
Kellyanne Conway proves again she’s worth
whatever Trump pays her
American Thinker, by Andrea Widburg Original Article
The mainstream media are disgusting. That sentence could open every article about the mainstream media in a time of coronavirus. The media’s hostility to Trump is so extreme that there is no lie they won’t tell to damage him – never mind that doing so might destroy the American economy or cause other unimaginable harm to the American people. In addition to lies, the media’s other line of attack is to call everything Trump says or does “racist.” When it comes to the coronavirus, the media have a friend in the Chinese communist party that started this epidemic. The communists would also like Trump to be “racist,”
–
The Media Is Even More
Garbage Than Usual
Townhall, by Kurt Schlichter Original Article
It’s like the moronic mandarins of the mainstream media – luminaries like Honest Dan Rather, Brian “Badass Like Buttigieg” Williams, and Zombie Cronkite – got together to create a plan to make people hate the media even more than they already did. It was a daunting challenge, since people view the mainstream media as something akin to syphilis without the upside. But it’s as if they finally succeeded, accomplishing, against all odds, something besides failure, leveraging this pandemic to destroy the media forever. The Chinese Coronavirus Bat Soup Syndrome has taken what’s left of the media’s reputation, poured gasoline on it,
–
Israeli Nobel Laureate:
Coronavirus spread is slowing
Jerusalem Post, by Donna Rachel Edmunds Original Article
The coronavirus epidemic is slowing down in China, and will not pose a risk to the majority of people, an Israeli Nobel Prize laureate has said. Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist who won the 2013 Nobel prize for chemistry for “the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems,” has become something of a household name in China over the last few months. Although his specialty is not in epidemiology, he accurately forecast the slowing down of the spread of the virus in February, giving hope to those affected by the lockdown.
–
Last Israeli from ‘coronavirus cruise
ship’ released from hospital
Jerusalem Post, by Staff Original Article
Shalva Dahan, the last patient in hospital at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship was released today, a spokesperson for Sheba said. Dahan spent 28 days in an isolation room at Sheba after she was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus upon her return to the country from the ship. Several hundreds people aboard the boat that docked in Japan caught the virus.Sheba said that Dahan’s last two test for coronavirus came back negative.
–
“Most of Those Infected Won’t Even Know
It” – Israeli Virologist Tells World Leaders
to Calm Unnecessary Panic over ‘Exaggerated’
Coronavirus
Gateway Pundit, by Jim Hoft Original Article
Posted by ladydawgfan — 3/19/2020 2:00:01 AM Post Reply
The cases of the coronavirus jumped to 9,225 in the US on Wednesday. The number of deaths blamed on the virus is 150 in the US. The number of estimated deaths from the flu this year, based on numbers from the CDC is 22,000. Top Israeli virologist Prof. Jihad Bishara, the director of the Infectious Disease Unit at Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Hospital, said this week most people will recover from the coronavirus without even knowing they were sick. Dr. Bishara said global leaders and the media need to quit pushing panic and calm people down. The Times of Israel reported: A leading Israeli virologist on Sunday urged world leaders to calm their citizens
–
Laura Ingraham: ‘China has blood
on their hands’ for their role
in the coronavirus pandemic
Fox News, by Victor Garcia Original Article
Laura Ingraham demanded “total cooperation and openness from China” in response to their role in the coronavirus pandemic, adding the country has “blood on their hands” and they should be punished if they do not provide information. “It’s essential that our health experts work cooperatively with other countries and that we all share data and findings about the disease as we try to stop it spread all over the world.(Snip)”But we need the Chinese government to give us total and complete access to all their scientific data, including, by the way, the findings of doctors who first studied and discovered the virus.”
–
House Democrats Propose Lifting Tariffs
On Chinese Imports, Rewarding China for
Downplaying Wuhan Virus
Gateway Pundit, by Jacob Engels Original Article
A leading House Democrat is suggesting that we end tariffs on Chinese imports amid the spread of Wuhan Virus , essentially rewarding the Chinese for their secretive and problematic handling of the virus that is quickly spreading to all corners of the globe. Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, whose husband manufactures sportswear in Chinese factories according to an article by The Hill, could potentially benefit from such a move. The proposed legislation is co-sponsored by Democrat Joe Cunningham of South Carolina. Murphy also owns a patent on one of the products manufactured by her husband. Murphy and Cunningham’s plan does not provide any insight or plans
–
BREAKING: Italian Health Ministry Confirms
ONLY TWELVE or 3% of Coronavirus Fatalities
in Study Did Not Have Other Serious
Health Complications
Gateway Pundit, by Joe Hoft Original Article
Posted by ladydawgfan — 3/19/2020 12:26:58 AM Post Reply
Since early March Italy became the epicenter of of the coronavirus epidemic. As of Wednesday morning there have been 31,506 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy and 2,503 deaths. But new data from the Italian government shows that the people dying from the coronavirus are either the elderly or have other complications. Today’s news out of Italy confirms this is the case. 50% of those who died from coronavirus had THREE DIFFERENT SERIOUS HEALTH CONDITIONS and the average per person had 2.7 serious health conditions. Only 12 coronavirus fatalities had NO previous health concerns before coming down with the coronavirus.
–
WHO Needs to Be Held Responsible! US
Coronavirus Numbers Including Asymtomatic
Patients Shows Mortality Rate 0.2% to 0.8%
and Not 3.4% as Reported by WHO
Gateway Pundit, by Jim Hoft Original Article
The controversial Ethiopian politician and Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, claimed in a press conference in early March that the fatality rate for the coronavirus was many multiples that of the fatality rate of the common flu. This egregiously false premise has led to the greatest economic panic in world history. The Director General of the WHO spoke on March 3, 2020 and shared this related to the coronavirus: While many people globally have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains, COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity. That means more people are susceptible to infection, and some will suffer severe disease.
–
Millions to Politicize Coronavirus, Spread Fear
Breitbart Politics, by Hannah Bleau Original Article
Millions of Americans across the country are, day by day, adjusting their lives to better cope with the economic, social, and political impacts caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, as a dark money network simultaneously works overtime to further politicize the festering crisis.A Democrat-aligned Super PAC announced on Tuesday that it will spend $5 million on negative ads targeting President Trump’s response to the coronavirus.“The campaign from Pacronym — a political action committee affiliated with the nonprofit group Acronym — represents the first major pivot to coronavirus-related advertising fewer than 250 days from the election,” the Washington Post reported
–

Leave as few financial scars as possible

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Quite like this. No stimulus stupidities, just plain subsidisation for businesses whose trade has been throttled by Corona Fears. From Coronavirus: Big banks join business bailout.

The big banks are negotiating a multi-billion-dollar business rescue package with the Morrison government that could see taxpayers underwrite loans to small and medium-sized firms facing collapse, in a bid to avoid mass job losses and a deep recession.

The Australian understands the government is considering a loan guarantee to keep businesses afloat as part of Scott Morrison’s second-round economic rescue package, which could take the total government spend to more than $40bn….

The banks have been pushing for a version of the New Zealand model, which would involve cash payments to businesses to prevent them laying off staff. The banks favour the New Zealand scheme because of concerns that businesses may be reluctant to take on additional debt during an economic downturn.

The Bank’s approach seems to make a great deal of sense. Keep businesses afloat in a way that leaves no scars. Think of it as a form of war loan. Meantime, no increases in public spending.

Is the Corona Virus pandemic just another scam?

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On economics, I don’t trust anyone else’s judgement but my own. The Global Financial Crisis was mismanaged to such an extent that only with the arrival of Donald Trump, who knows something about how an economy works, even if only instinctively, that the US and the rest of us subsequently have moved forward.

On politics, again I don’t trust anyone else’s judgement. Our political class are such stupidoes and so bizarrely left leaning, that the kinds of things they do in almost every circumstance is plain out wrong. The public trust looks like a scam almost in everything that is touched. And with the public service entirely university-educated, I never expect political decisions to be sensible, which they seldom are.

On climate change (formerly known as global warming) I kept a watchful eye on it all until I finally decided, now quite a while ago, that it, too, is a scam. There is absolutely nothing in any of it that should be a worry.

As for Y2K, I was a sceptic way back, well before New Year’s Eve 2000. And since, I have never seen so much madness before the day, and never an apologetic word since. Utterly nothing whatsoever in it despite the five-alarm fire.

And now we are dealing with perhaps the biggest scam of them all. I know nothing about viruses and pandemics, but was a long-time student of the Black Death and Bubonic Plague. Maybe it’s early days, but so far there is nothing going on that reminds me of the days of “Bring Out Your Dead”. I keep hearing that such pandemics grow at exponential rates, and while there is hardly anything now, just wait. Except during the Black Death, from the moment it began, there was no doubting the extent of the catastrophe.

We shall therefore see. But! All below from Instapundit. May the skepticism flourish until we are certain one way or the other. Caution is important. Blind panic is madness.

THE NUMBERS JUST DON’T ADD UP TO THE CRAZY STUFF WE’RE DOING TO “BEND A CURVE” THAT WAS NEVER THAT DANGEROUS. LOOK, EVERY DEATH IS REGRETTABLE, BUT IF THE CHINESE FLU JUSTIFIES THIS, THE YEARLY FLU SHOULD HAVE US IN QUARANTINE YEAR AROUND PRETTY MUCH:  Diamond Princess Mysteries.

AND HOW:  In crisis there is opportunity, and the left wants to seize it. 

THE PANIC IS WHAT WILL KILL US:  Apocalypse No.

I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO SOUND CRAZY, BUT PERHAPS THE RESULTS TO THE ECONOMY, TO THE ABILITY OF PEOPLE TO MOVE AROUND AND ORGANIZE IS WHAT WAS INTENDED ALL ALONG?  Mayor of NYC Bill DiBlasio: Get Ready for a “Shelter in Place” Order For NYC Within the Next 48 Hours. I mean, as with global warming and other things, you have to ask yourself “What are these measures actually accomplishing?” And why are leftist governors scaling up/ramping up the shut downs and restrictions in the absence of anything justifying it?

THIS TO ME, TO ALLUDE TO SHERLOCK HOLMES, IS THE DOG THAT DIDN’T BARK IN THE NIGHT. I’M SORRY, IF YOU THINK THAT — IF NOTHING ELSE WITH DRUG DEALS AND HANDOUTS AND SUCH — THE PROFESSIONAL CLASS HAS NO CONTACT WITH THE HOMELESS, YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR MIND. ALSO THE HOMELESS ARE IN AND OUT OF HOSPITALS A LOT. THEY’RE “FREQUENT FLIERS”.  SO, HOW COME THEY’RE NOT DROPPING LIKE FLIES?  Another Vulnerable Population.

BUT… BUT… BUT… I THOUGHT THE REASON THIS WASN’T SPREADING IN AFRICA (MOST OF WHICH, BTW, IS NOT IN SUMMER TEMPERATURES (IN FACT ALL OF WHICH IS IN A MID-SEASON RIGHT NOW)) AND MOST BRAZILIANS AREN’T DEAD AFTER CARNIVAL WAS THAT IT DOESN’T SPREAD EVEN IN RELATIVELY WARM WEATHER. SO HOW COME CALIFORNIA NEEDS THIS?  Bay Area Issues ‘Shelter in Place’ to Stop Coronavirus From Spreading. I don’t know about you guys, but I smell several large, authoritarian rats.

ITALY IS NOT THE US. REPEAT: ITALY IS NOT THE US:  Distinguishing factors. But note even in Italy, a country that hugs, smokes, and uses public transportation, the average age of the victims of the Chinese Flu is 80 or so. My question is: What are we doing to protect those populations?  Well, not much. Sure, we closed care centers to visitors, but we still allow the nurses to go in and out, and a lot of those people have small kids who are in daycare.  As for the elders being cared for by family? Well, a lot of them still have essential doctors’ appointments as do their families. What is the quarantine doing?  It is destroying the economy. It is doing that with amazing efficiency. At which point do we ask ourselves what the INTENDED effect is?

HOW MANY OF THEM ARE IN CHINESE PAY?  Liberal Media Melts Down After Trump Tweets ‘Chinese Virus’.

YOU ARE BEING STAMPEDED:  COVID-19: the unwarranted panic.

AND ALSO THIS: From Scott Johnson at Powerline: Notes on the Pandemic.

Advice on how to pass the time

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While we are home maintaining our social distances, there is advice being given on how to occupy yourself in a more cultured sort of way. There is, firstly, this: You Can Now Tour 2,500 World-Famous Museums From the Comfort of Your Own Sofa. Since even if we could leave the house we are unlikely to fly anywhere for a bit, this might help to fill in for not actually being able to climb the Acropolis.

There is then this: Jordan Peterson’s list of Great Books. Starts with Stendahl’s Charterhouse of Parma. The list reminds me of one of the truly great books I have read: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. It divides books into those you have not read, books you have perused, and finally books you have forgotten. The Charterhouse of Parma is in that third category for me, as is Le Rouge et le Noir. I saw a copy of The Carpetbaggers for $2 the other day which is definitely a book I have forgotten. Picked it up and opened just somewhere and while I knew who the characters were, the specific part of the story had utterly evaporated.

Reminds me of a joke my blesséd mother told me many years ago.

How do you keep an Englishman happy in his old age?

Tell him jokes when he’s young.

I hope I don’t get reported to the HRC.