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The post False alarm? Ohio Gov. DeWine tests negative for COVID-19 immediately after testing positive appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Don't hold back, Joe - tell us what you really think.

The post Weirdest yet? In 48 hours, Biden TWICE says Latinos are diverse, ‘unlike African-American community’ appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Matt Blitz, DCist

The post D.C. contact tracing shows ‘infectious’ people going to restaurants, work appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Ryan Saavedra, Daily Wire

The post Portland: ‘Protesters’ bypass ‘intensifying’; now exponentialize momentum with attacks on police, precinct office appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Reuters

The post A.G.s of New York, Washington, D.C. file suits seeking to break up NRA, show misuse of funds appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

CBS 5 SF

The post California: Alameda County plans $1,250 stipend for COVID-positive individuals to stay home appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Ebony Bowden, NY Post

The post Guess which party endorses candidate who called women ‘breeders,’ wrote about ‘4-year-olds in thongs’ appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

An Illinois high school teacher was fired on July 16 for a Facebook post rejecting the idea of “white privilege.” That violated the First Amendment, even if some people viewed her Facebook post as racially inflammatory. Speech doesn’t become punishable just because it offends members of minority groups. For example, in Thompson v. Board of […]

The post Teacher unconstitutionally fired for Facebook post rejecting concept of ‘white privilege’ appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

We did not get good policy during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Indeed, it’s quite likely that bad decisions by Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt deepened and lengthened the Great Depression.

Likewise, George Bush and Barack Obama had the wrong responses (the TARP bailout and the faux stimulus) to the economic downturn of 2008-09.

But people in government don’t always make mistakes. If we go back nearly 100 years ago, we find that Warren Harding oversaw a very rapid recovery from the deep recession that occurred at the end of Woodrow Wilson’s disastrous presidency.

In a column for the Foundation for Economic Education, Robert Murphy has a very helpful tutorial on what happened.

…the U.S. experience during the 1920–1921 depression—one that the reader has probably never heard of—is almost a laboratory experiment …the government and Fed did the exact opposite of what the experts now recommend. We have just about the closest thing to a controlled experiment in macroeconomics that one could desire. To repeat, it’s not that the government boosted the budget at a slower rate, or that the Fed provided a tad less liquidity. On the contrary, the government slashed its budget tremendously… If the Keynesians are right about the Great Depression, then the depression of 1920–1921 should have been far worse. …the 1920–1921 depression was painful. The unemployment rate peaked at 11.7 percent in 1921. But it had dropped to 6.7 percent by the following year and was down to 2.4 percent by 1923. …the 1920–1921 depression “purged the rottenness out of the system” and provided a solid framework for sustainable growth. …The free market works. Even in the face of massive shocks requiring large structural adjustments, the best thing the government can do is cut its own budget and return more resources to the private sector.

Writing for National Review, David Harsanyi points out that there are many reasons why Warren Harding should be celebrated over Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson was one of the most despicable characters in 20th-century American politics: a national embarrassment. The Virginian didn’t merely hold racist “views;” he re-segregated the federal civil service. He didn’t merely involve the United States in a disastrous war in Europe after promising not to do so; he threw political opponents and anti-war activists into prison. Wilson, the first president to show open contempt for the Constitution and the Founding, was a vainglorious man unworthy of honor. Fortunately, we have the perfect replacement for Wilson: Warren Harding, the most underappreciated president in American history… Harding, unlike Wilson — and most of today’s political class, for that matter — didn’t believe politics should play an outsized role in the everyday lives of citizens. …Where Wilson had expanded the federal government in historic ways, creating massive new agencies such as the War Industries Board, Harding’s shortened term did not include any big new bureaucracies… Wilson left the country in a terrible recession; Harding turned it around, becoming the last president to end a downturn by cutting taxes, and slashing spending and regulations. Harding cut spending from $6.3 billion in 1920 to $3.3 billion by 1923.

Walter Block, in an article for the Mises Institute, explains that what happened almost 100 years ago can provide a good road map if President Trump wishes to restore prosperity today (especially when compared to the disastrous policies of Hoover and Roosevelt).

…let us look back a bit at some economic history regarding recessions and depressions… The depression in 1921 was short lived—maybe not a V, but at least a very narrow U. …Happily, during the 1921 depression, the government of President Warren G. Harding did not intervene…and the entire episode was over not in a matter of weeks (the V) or years (a fattish U), but months (a narrow U). The Great Depression, which stretched from 1929–41 (a morbidly obese U) stemmed from identical causes. …But Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt “fixed” this by propping up heavy industries whose extent was overblown by the previous artificially lowered interest rates, in an early “too big to fail” paroxysm. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff added insult to injury, and put the kibosh on any early recovery. …I now predict the sharpest of Vs, but if and only if, all other things being equal, the Trump administration cleaves to market principles. …So, Mr. President, embrace the free enterprise system, attain a V, a very narrow and sharp one, and the prognostication for November will be significantly boosted.

Professor Block’s analysis is very sound…except for the part where he speculates that Trump will do the right thing and copy Harding.

Given Trump’s awful track record on spending, it would be more accurate to speculate that I’ll be playing in the outfield for the Yankees when they win this year’s World Series.

Suffice to say, though, that it would be great to find another Warren Harding. Here’s a chart based on OMB data showing that he actually cut spending (and we’re looking at genuine spending cuts, not the make-believe spending cuts that happen in DC when politicians boost the budget by less than previously planned).

According to fans of Keynesian economics, these spending cuts should have tanked the economy, but instead we got a boom.

P.S. By the way, something similar happened after World War II.

P.P.S. Back in 2012, I shared some insightful analysis from Thomas Sowell about Harding’s economic policy.

P.P.P.S. Harding also lowered tax rates.

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Image credit: National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress | Public Domain.

What's worse: the known unknowns, or the unknown unknowns?

The post Will America survive the next three months? appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Making sure the law-abiding can't "stockpile" guns.

The post Confusion – and 1,100 purchases denied in first month – as new Virginia gun restrictions take effect appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Byron York, Wash. Examiner

The post Will Democrats accept election loss? New report says no appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Feeding time

The post Cartoon of the Day: Garbage in appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Time was when people who claim to be ‘of conscience’ were content to seek equality as our founding fathers defined it. Somewhere along the line that goal was perversely modified to permit — nay, encourage — overt attacks on people ‘based on the color of their skin.’

The post Another teacher fired for voicing a ‘non-establishment’ (read: racist) opinion on social media appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Darlene Superville, AP

The post Trump gives $35 million to aid human trafficking victims appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Law Enforcement Todat

The post Teen who makes teddy bears for children of fallen officers out of their uniforms getting death threats appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

George Conway, WaPo

The post Trump’s name should live in infamy appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

John Bowden, The Hill

The post Nev. gov signs bill to allow mail-in voting after Trump promises legal challenge appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Keith Griffith, Daily Mail

The post Chicago rapper FBG Duck shot dead in broad daylight in neighborhood lined with designer boutiques appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Even though Joe Biden has embraced a very left-wing agenda, I suspect many of the items on his wish list are designed to placate Bernie-type activists who have considerable influence in the Democratic Party.

As such, I don’t think Biden will push “Medicare for All” if he’s elected. But I fear he may support a “public option” that is less radical but still misguided.

The strongest argument in the video is that a government-created competitor to private insurance companies will be much more expensive than politicians are promising.

This is what always happens with government programs (see Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare) because politicians have a never-ending incentive to buy votes with other people’s money. And it will happen with any new program.

But I think the video overlooks an argument that would be even more politically effective, which is the fact that a public option would slowly but surely begin to strangle employer-based health insurance.

Simply stated, vote-buying politicians will deliberately under-price the cost of the public option. And the presence of a subsidized and under-priced government health plan will make employer-based policies less attractive over time – especially since the subsidies almost certainly will expand.

However, people generally like their employer-based health plans and presumably will be skeptical of any plan that threatens that system (and it’s probably safe to assume that health insurance companies will have an incentive to educate people about that likely outcome).

By the way, it’s not my intention to defend the employer-based system, which largely exists because of a foolish loophole in the tax code. As far as I’m concerned, that system is a convoluted and inefficient mess that has contributed to the health care system’s third-party payer crisis.

What we need is a restoration of free markets in health care.

But with the public option, the best-case scenario is that many people over time will get pushed from the top line of this image to the bottom line.

And that’s also the worst-case scenario since no problems will be fixed, but overall costs will be even higher thanks to greater government involvement.

For what it’s worth, some advocates of the public option claim it can actually save money by lowering reimbursement rates to doctors and hospitals. That could happen in theory, but exploding costs for Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare show that it doesn’t happen in reality.

The bottom line is that more government intervention in health care won’t solve the problems caused by existing levels of government intervention in health care (a tragic example of Mitchell’s Law). Which is why I fear that the public option ultimately would be a slow-motion version of Medicare for All.

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Image credit: Pictures of Money | CC BY 2.0.