Finding thankfulness after the death of my son

 

Today is Thanksgiving.   

Seven months ago today, on April 26th our son Gehrig died.

To say that the last seven months have been difficult would be like saying that torture is a somewhat uncomfortable experience.

Our family's loss has been one that has permanently scarred us.   Every waking moment - and even in our restless nights and dreams that come when we are asleep - we are tormented by the reality of never seeing him again on this Earth.

Gehrig William Chambless was a superstar of a human being - as well as a superstar in every endeavor he pursued.

His infectious smile, his easy-going demeanor and his giving spirit touched so many lives - and still does to this day.   

From the time he was a little boy he was, to me, a near-perfect son.   When he was a little boy he was easy to laugh, always eager to please and a pure joy to teach - whether it was as a home-schooling father, or as his baseball coach.   He wanted to be excellent in everything he put his mind or hands to.

His short stories, poetry and songs came from a mind that I could not comprehend.   

His athletic prowess in ice hockey, football and baseball was the stuff of legend.

Yet, it was his love of family that resonates with me most today as I think about what I am thankful for.

Today I have found myself thinking of parents who have lost children to miscarriages, or whose children lived for only a few hours after birth.  I have thought about parents whose children have died as toddlers and those who raised children who made it to adulthood but ended up awful human beings.

If we had lost Gehrig early in his life - or watched him turn into a bad person later in life - today would be one of immeasurable pain and regret.  I know I would be sitting here today wondering, "What would he have been like if he had made it past infancy?" or, "Where did we go wrong to have a young man turn out this way?"

I am truly grateful that on November 26, 2020 I can look back at the life we had with our son and know that for 21 years, 2 months and 22 days we were so staggeringly blessed by one of the all-time great human beings that thankfulness is the most appropriate emotion we should be experiencing today.

I love you Gehrig.  

To view his Memorial Service (which starts at the 3:50 mark) please see www.gehrigchambless.com 

A Libertarian perspective on Biden's victory

I must admit, I have enjoyed telling people I know that "I voted for Jo" - only to see the looks on their faces as they ponder how I could have voted for Joe Biden.   When I tell them "Jo Jorgensen" I get the "who the heck is that?" look.

On Tuesday I joined 1.6 million other Americans - 1.1% of the people who voted - by selecting someone who had no chance to win.   Libertarians always vote for people who have no chance to win.  

We do not care.

We vote for Libertarian candidates because we do not believe the modern Republican or Democratic parties stand up for our uncompromised values.

Donald Trump opposed the free movement of human beings (immigration) and the free movement of products (international trade with no tariffs).  He did nothing to slow down government spending and used eminent domain unashamedly to build his border wall.   We hated all of that since we believe that people should have the right to move from point A to point B if they think point B is a better choice; believe that no government should tell businesses which nations they can sell to, and in what quantities; believe government spending should fit within Article One, Section Eight, Clause One of the U.S. Constitution (the Madison view, not the Hamilton view) and abhor the use of eminent domain for any reason.

We were happy that Trump cut personal and corporate income taxes (although no income tax would be better).  We loved his reduction in government regulations which lowered production costs and fueled greater supplies of a myriad of goods and services and appointed many justices who had a more strict constructionist view of the Constitution.  Those judges will be here long after his last U-Haul leaves the White House so that is worth something.

Libertarians are braced for Joe Biden and his likely Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - inspired agenda that will shove new rules and regulations - along with new taxes and new welfare-state/wasteful infrastructure spending - into our economy.   He will likely regulate energy markets in a way that will not ban fracking or fossil fuels but will make extracting and selling them more expensive and thus make the cost of living for all of us - especially the poor - increase.

He will try to raise taxes on people who make more money than the rest of us only to find out what all Democrats find out.  Money and people are mobile and rich people do not get to be rich by being stupid.  He will not get the revenue he hopes he will, economic growth will slow and rich people will still be rich while the rest of us see less job creation and opportunities.

He will try to expand government spending to solve his Covid-19 anti-economic growth, safety at all cost belief system, which will only increase the debt (just like Trump) and saddle future generations with large tax increases long after he has left us.

He will spend our money on idiotic Keynesian schemes to build up our infrastructure.  This was the same nonsense that did nothing for growth when Obama was the President and did nothing for our economy during the Great Depression.  Taking one dollar from me to shuffle over to the construction of a windmill means I am poorer by one dollar and the government is richer by one dollar.  If my plans with that dollar were better than the dollar for the windmill it would have been more efficient to let me keep my dollar.  That is a fact that has not changed and Biden will not suddenly alter that fact.

However, there is some potential good news from a Biden presidency.

First, he will likely try to pick up where Mr. Obama left off and rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  He will probably be more inclined to pursue expanded free trade and end the moronic trade war Trump started with China.  This will boost the demand for American goods and lower prices we pay for foreign goods.

He will more likely end the cruel and xenophobic immigration policies of Donald Trump.  This will increase the supply of labor in areas that currently face critical shortages while at the same time restoring America as a nation that welcomes human beings who want to simply have a better life.

It is also likely that he will seek to restore our relationships with our allies.   Libertarians differ on the degree to which we need "entangling alliances" but it is certainly arguable that it is better to have a president who seems presidential, intelligent, polite, dignified, humble and receptive to the views of others than the guy we have had in office for the last four years.

If Biden can just hold off the socialists that are going to try to run him over and act like his own man he just might be a more centrist president and we will, as usual, be o.k. for the next four years.

Searching for my White Privilege

The following is my Op-Ed from the October 1, 2020 edition of The Orlando Sentinel

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As our fractured nation continues to deal with unending controversy surrounding issues of race, police practices and social justice I have found myself pondering where people like me fit into the equation of equality – or the lack of it – that dates back to the first forced enslavement of black people from the continent of Africa. 

I am a 54-year old heterosexual Christian white male.   That places me in at least five categories that currently subjects me to implied – and sometimes overt – accusation of being privileged to the point of not being able to comprehend my status as such, nor able to understand the plight of people who do not fit within the same profile I benefit from. 

After all, everything about my station in life – race, sexual orientation, age, religious affiliation and gender – pretty much matches up with the people who founded our nation on the principles that we are all created equal while slavery, the political degradation of women, gays and non-Christians went hypocritically unchallenged. 

 Since that time we have seen what people like me would call “great progress” even though there should have never been a need for progress to begin with.  Had our Founders truly believed in the concepts they so eloquently shipped off to the King of England we would not have witnessed the battle for equal rights that so many disenfranchised groups have had to wage in our lifetime and in the lifetime of people who are not even born yet. 

Yet, I am troubled by an assumption – that often borders on accusation – that I am not sure about.    

That assumption is that I, by virtue of being white, have inadvertently benefited from a legacy of white supremacy that I am oblivious too.   I have been told by some of my colleagues that we white people suffer from a form of cancer that dates back to 1619 and that until we reach a true level of higher conscientiousness we will be part of the ongoing problem of racism in this country. 

I was born in Germany.  My mother and her mother were too.  My grandmother was bombed out of her home during WWII, wrapping her children in wet blankets to keep them from being engulfed in flames.  My mother was born without her American father ever seeing her.  She grew up in horrific poverty and depended on care packages from a family in New York to avoid starvation.  By 14 she was working full-time to help support her mother. 

My father’s mother died when he was two.  His father was murdered when he was four.  He grew up an orphan being shuttled around from home to home until he ran away from an abusive house, eventually dropped out of school and joined the Air Force. 

When he and my mother moved back to the United States they had no money and fed me with the free milk our milkman would drop off on our doorstep in Hugo, Oklahoma. 

Hugo is the poorest town in one of the poorest states in America. 

I grew up in a white household but based on the economic conditions I saw – and experienced firsthand – I am not sure how the word “privilege” fits in. 

I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school and attend college.  My parents did not have the money to pay for this so I worked jobs ranging from construction in West Texas to land clearing; grocery bagging and more.   

When I graduated from college my first job application as a college instructor ended up with a department head telling me that I was the most qualified applicant but that due to “affirmative action considerations” I would not be hired.  I did not feel that this was something I should feel privileged about. 

For nearly 30 years now I have taught my students that the long history of economics has proven a few things to be immutable facts. 

One of them is that there has always been –and always will be – people who are too stupid to stop engaging in the irrationality of bigotry, xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and more.   I teach my students that to practice these awful “isms” not only denies other human beings their natural right to life, liberty and property, but it places the person engaging in these acts of hate in the unproductive condition of failing to maximize the value that comes from serving your fellowman without regard to anything other than the mutual gains from trade. 

On behalf of other white people who did not grow up privileged – and teach others how to treat everyone with dignity – I would like to ask the “white privilege” accusers to judge us the same way you would like to be judged. 

July 4, 1776 and what it means today

As our country approaches its 244th birthday I thought it would be appropriate to share with you a scene from the John Adams miniseries.    Our nation is in the midst of what we have always been in the midst of - turmoil, factions and political upheaval.  This is what makes our nation special.   People of all walks of life; of all skin colors; of all belief systems and of all political orientations get to demand that our nation live up to the promises that were supposed to be kept.   I for one am not worried that the pandemic or social  unrest will tear us apart.   People have been predicting the decline of America from the first moment the ink began to dry on the Declaration of Independence.   

We have never been perfect.  We have always been flawed.

But it is our flaws that allows us to incrementally - and sometimes suddenly - realize that all people have a God-given right to life, liberty and property.

It is when any one of us  has  a legitimate argument that our rights are being violated that we stand up and demand change.

This is how it was intended to be.

So whether you are part of the 'no mask' movement of the Trump supporters or part of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement you are living out 244 years of what America is and should always be about - dissent, discord and demands that the principles of our founding documents be adhered to.

So, happy Independence Day - whatever Independence looks like to you.

Why Democrats should fight to end Shelter-in-Place orders

In a recent Pew Research Center study it was revealed that 69% of voters that lean democrat or are democrats are also atheists. 

This means that Joe Biden and every Democratic governor in the United States should demand an immediate end to all shelter-in-place orders and a re-opening of the American economy.

Think about it.  If you are an atheist you ostensibly believe in the theory of evolution rather than creation.   If you believe in evolution you, by deductive reasoning and logic, also believe that pandemics are simply part of nature and nature's way of selecting members of various animals - in this case humans - who are most fit to survive the spread of deadly viruses, while the weakest members of the species are naturally 'selected' for their biologically natural fate.

Any follower of Darwin should be perplexed by the fact that we are expending valuable resources to protect the most vulnerable citizens of our country.  That is to say, the elderly.   Atheists should lead the charge to stop this artificial protection of senior citizens under the argument that every dollar we spend protecting a weaker member of our species, the more harm we inflict on younger, healthier member of the human race by subjecting them to greater debt and ultimately higher taxes for decades to come.

Among those 69% of Democrats who do not support creationism, they would also have to argue - lest they come off as ignorant hypocrites - that the shutdown of our economy is unfairly punishing those businesses that had been thriving by serving their customers well.  In biology, only those species that have successfully adapted and mutated as the ecosystem demands it will be selected for success and the rest of the competitors will die off.  So, if you were running a business that had figured out how to serve people faster, or better, or with some unique product or service model that was better than your next best competitor, the government is artificially killing you - and violating Darwin's theories - in two ways.

First, the government is forcing you to shut down, or reduce your service offerings.  This is like a forest ranger forcing a successful pack of wolves to hunt less or move to less productive hunting grounds.  

Second, the government is taking money away from successful members of our species and giving it to less successful businesses all in the name of 'stimulus'.  This is like the same forest ranger taking away the elk that a pack of productive wolves has killed and giving that kill to wolves that heretofore had been hunting in less productive areas, or were not hunting productively.

Now the inferior wolf pack is rewarded for being inferior while the productive pack is left to figure out how to navigate an environment where you are punished for being successful.

This leaves us with the fact that if you are a Democrat - and an atheist - you can only legitimately contend that the pandemic should be allowed to run its course - even if millions die - and that government should not artificially interfere in stopping the pandemic or prevent people from freely choosing to interact with one another.  Atheists can only argue that humans are capable of reason and logic that have evolved over thousands of years and therefore humans should be allowed to freely determine whom they interact with and in what manner.

To argue anything else - like protecting the weak and supporting your brother in his time of need - might sound a little bit like what believers in God would argue.   

President Trump has 'Total' Power? Of course he does....

In case you missed it Donald Trump claimed that as president he has "total authority" and that "that is the way it's gotta be" in a news conference yesterday.   Today, there are no mass protests, no marching on Washington, D.C. while keeping with social distancing standards.   There is no public outrage as far as I can see.  There is no figurative middle finger being extended by the cowering governors of most states in our country.  There is nothing.   And it makes sense.

Did any of us really believe this guy has ever read the U.S. Constitution, much less believes in it?

Does it really matter if he has read it, or remotely cares about it?

Well, no, it does not.

The American people have proven to be all too willing to subjugate themselves to the omnipresent, all-knowing, all powerful government - at every level.    

I just finished grading an all-essay exam for my roughly 200 students at Valencia.  One of the questions asked them to consider the proper role of government in a market-based economy during a pandemic and to discuss our rights as Americans within the context of dealing with the Covid-19 virus.   It was sickening to read that the vast - and I do mean vast - majority of my students want the government to go even farther than it has in protecting us from the possibility of sickness.   Most of my students - and dare I say most Americans - are all too willing and ready for the federal government to declare some form of economic and social martial law and strip us of our rights until we are all safe from this virus.   They want government to use force to keep people inside and not let them move about somewhat freely as is currently the case.   They are in favor of jailing people who are caught outside.  They want government to step in and provide -with no end in sight - the greatest expansion of social welfare spending anyone has ever seen.

Most shocking is that my students and their fellow Americans, have imminent faith in the ability of politicians to make these decisions.  They seem, during this grave crisis, to revere elected officials as some sort of secular gods with perfect knowledge of when to say "all clear" and perfect foresight into what measures must be taken and what enforcement mechanisms would be most appropriate.

I am reminded of the French economist, Frederic Bastiat, who, in 1849 wrote a book called, The Law. Towards the end of this book he writes: 

“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”

Which brings us to Donald Trump and his claim of total authority.   If we live in a nation of people who are largely recipients of the gift of liberty and who, with the exception of people nearing 100 years of age - have not had to fight to defend this gift, how can we possibly see that Donald Trump -and other government officials - are simply doing what all politicians do.  That is, during times of crisis, we see those in power push the boundaries of that power in order to expand the size and scope of their authority.  Lincoln suspended many of our Constitutional rights during the Civil War.  FDR oversaw the internment of Americans who happened to be of Japanese descent.   George W. Bush used September 11th to justify the Patriot Act.  President Obama used the last financial crisis to push through Constitutionally questionable banking and health care laws and so on.

Now we get to a president, who appears to be a classic narcissist - and one whose core supporters do not seem to interested in limiting his authority.  What else should we expect but to see him claim total authority?  He knows his supporters will ignorantly cheer him on.  He knows the rest of us will not put on our masks and take to the streets.  He knows that maybe 1/2 of one percent of Americans even know what the Constitution says about presidential power and that not even 1/2 of one percent care about what Alexander Hamilton called, "this frail and worthless fabric."   

Therefore, if history records that the acceleration of Americans slide into a despotic state began during the 2020 pandemic, it will be because of overwhelming ignorance of what our Founding Fathers gave us - and apathy to what it means - that will be the primary cause.

A Millennial Introduction to Socialism Part II

One of the great complaints about capitalism that all supporters of Bernie Sanders cite is the incessant greed that the pursuit of profit creates in our country.   We are told - by people who most likely majored in the humanities - that we should not put profit over people and that community well-being is a more laudable goal.

Let me ask you young folks a question...

Have you enjoyed toilet paper shopping lately?  How is that going?  Are you enjoying finding empty shelves, long lines and near panic-like conditions among shoppers desperate to find cleaning supplies, meat and bread?

Well, my friends, welcome to what the world looks like in Venezuela every day.   Take a look at this video.  It will take only 3 minutes and 43 seconds away from your Instagram posting and will help you see what the world would look like if we adopted socialism on a macroeconomic scale.

Shortages happen from time to time in a market economy.  The shortages we are seeing at this time stem from historic increases in the demand for everything we think we will need to get through this pandemic.   As demand increases, suppliers scramble to increase production in order to profit from this unique opportunity.  We have seen countless stories of companies shifting away from beer production, for example, in order to produce hand sanitizer.  Car makers are shifting into the production of medical equipment and so on.

The driving motivation behind this shift is not the common good, but rather the uncommon profit opportunity.

In socialism, businesses would be prevented from capitalizing on this shift in demand.   Prices would be controlled by government, inventories would be rationed - by the government - and the incentive to increase production would be eliminated - leading to permanent shortages.

This is what life is like every day in Venezuela.   The government there has waged war on entrepreneurship for over two decades and thus the incentives to produce toilet paper - and everything else - has been wiped out.  People in this once prosperous nation now line up every day to try to find things that will help them survive.

In America, because of capitalism, we know that eventually the flow of goods will return to its normal level.  None of us go to bed at night wondering if there will ever be meat at the store again.

If left to the devices of people like Bernie Sanders - and his young followers who have not taken an economics class, nor have ever lived in Venezuela - we would face shortages of everything, every day.

Dear Millennials, THIS is what Socialism looks like!

One of the greatest unintended consequences of the government's reaction to Covid-19 is the first-hand, once-in-a-lifetime lesson in what socialism really looks like.  So to all of you folks out there who are somewhere between 18 and 35 please read this carefully.  It could save your life.

I know many of you have been super-excited for quite some time with the Presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders.   Some of you have acknowledged that Bernie is now finished but has laid important groundwork for youger socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who can pick up his mantle and carry it forward in your quest to finally have Democratic-Socialism arrive in the United States.

It is somewhat understandable - for two reasons - that you would want this.  First, if you are 35 years old it means you were in kindergarten when the Soviet Union fell apart.  It means you have never lived one day in a nation that was pitted against a nation that was threatening to export human misery on a mass scale to the rest of the world - or bomb us into oblivion as a second-best choice.

You did not get to live in a world where 40% of the population lived under communism or socialism.  You have never even lived in a world where Scandinavia, long held out as the dream of you young socialists, actually practiced socialism.  See https://www.heritage.org/index/

So, having no frame of reference other than modern-day Venezuela, for what socialism looks like, you are largely ignorant of what it would look like to live through it.  Of course my students from Venezuela do not need to read any more of this post because they have lived through socialism and are well versed in the deprivation it creates.   That is one reason why they are my favorite students.  They live for liberty and value it more than my American students do.

A second reason why young Americans want socialism is because this has been a lousy century for you.  When you were babies your government turned on its own people in the wake of September 11th on a scale that would make George Orwell shudder.   From the Patriot Act to domestic surveillance to a nation that makes us cow-tow at airports, you have lived in a nation that has largely traded in its liberty for security.

Then, when you were a little older, you got to see the second worst recession in our nation's history and the mass-hijacking of your futures when the Federal Reserve Bank and the federal government combined to bail out large banks and corporations that would make Robin Hood cheer.   It is no wonder you want Grandpa Bernie to give you free health care, free tuition and free child care.  You have grown up watching government give away your future earnings in the form of artificially pumped up money supplies and plunder in favor of the well connected.  Now you want your share.

Finally, we now see your government destroying liberty in the name of health care security by locking us down and telling us we cannot go places they do not approve of and that we have to be in our homes at 11PM.  In exchange for that, Congress is going to steal another $2 trillion from your future (did you think the stimulus was free money?) and destroy your jobs and income in the present.

Socialism is an economic system that violates the rights of the individual in order to serve the desires of the state.  Socialism means the nationalization or overt control over key industries.  Socialism means a huge expansion of the size of government on the backs of future taxpayers.  Socialism means lots of rules and regulations in order to make us all safe.

As you prepare to be locked in your homes by our new quasi police-state think about this...

Which seems better - the freedom and chance for prosperity you had a few weeks ago, or the security and reliance on the state that you are getting now?

Remember, be careful what you wish for....

A Libertarian Guide to Social Distancing

I hate to admit this but all this social distancing stuff is coming pretty easy for me.   As a Libertarian (since around 4 seconds after George H.W. Bush became president) I have long valued being, well, alone.

The Republican party has the elephant for a mascot.  The Democrats have a Jackass (insert joke here).  The Libertarians have a porcupine!  Think about it.  The porcupine is a solitary animal who just wants to be left alone to look for food and other porcupines.   Voluntary association is the hallmark of a good porcupine.   If you bother one you get a face full of quills.

For around 50 years I have been the human equivalent of a porcupine.  The one friend I have who lives near me (my Texas and Tennessee friends do visit much...) also happens to be my wife.  I do not own a cell phone because I find human contact overrated.  I therefore have no social media presence.  This blog does not count because I post what I think and do not really care what people think about what I think.  I don't ask for, or expect, "likes" because I do not care what you like.  I like what I like and then, if I feel like it, share it with other people.

I have been this way forever.   When I was in Eugene Field Elementary school in Hugo, Oklahoma, I used to run a way every year during the school picnic to play in the woods with whatever kid I could convince to break out with me.  The moment the teacher had us stand in a socialistic line to march to the park I was plotting my escape.  Right after lunch I would bolt with my willing partners and not come back until it was time for all the sheep to march back to school.

In the first grade, on my very first report card, my teacher wrote, "Jack is progressing well but refuses to comply with society's standards of behavior."  Damn right. Society is not my boss.  I, as a six-year old, felt that I was my boss until I got home and my parents let me know that I needed to comply with some rules - or get a belt across the behind for refusing.

With this Coronavirus I find that my life has not changed much.  I still have one friend who I hang out with regularly.   I am now at home, with my wife and dog Jake and I am fine.   I have been re-watching Stranger Things, working out, folding socks for the first time since Obama was president, cooking a little more often and doing projects that need to be done.  I miss talking to my students but they are fine.   I miss sports on television but not enough to stress over it.   Since I have never texted anyone, I do not miss that.  Since I am not on Instagram I do not miss that.  

I would recommend to anyone reading this to consider the possibility that most human interaction is not necessary and in fact, is actually pretty annoying.   Do you miss the way people drive on the roads?  Do you miss people blathering on their phones in restaurants and movies?  Probably not.   

I think the world would be a better place if we could just learn to enjoy our time away from each other.  Maybe we would be a little nicer, a little more tolerant and actually engage in meaningful conversation once we are allowed to hang out again.

Until then, enjoy the solitude.  After all, unless you hate yourself you will enjoy your company.

Trump's Tariffs Leave the U.S. Short on Vital Medical Supplies

From the March 19, 2020 Wall Street Journal

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Why would the U.S. increase the cost and difficulty of supplying protective gear to doctors and nurses? Why would Washington obstruct the acquisition of lifesaving equipment? Because the sclerosis of trade protectionism, once it takes hold, constricts economic health and adaptation.

Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics calculates that the Trump administration has imposed new taxes on almost $5 billion of medical exports from China, totaling about 26% of U.S. health-care imports. With tariffs, the U.S. government is making it harder for first responders to procure masks, sterile gloves, goggles, hospital gowns, surgical drapes, thermometers and breathing masks. America also imports about $22 billion of medical technology from countries all over the world, including CT systems, patient monitors and X-ray devices.

U.S. medical distributors are busy hunting for alternative producers and testing their equipment for interoperability when they should be concentrating on getting supplies to those in need. China, in turn, has diverted its sales to other markets. After President Trump hit Chinese medical suppliers with a 25% tariff in 2018, China’s exports to the U.S. dropped by 16%. In some cases, American users had no good alternatives because suppliers must get certified by the Food and Drug Administration, which can take more than two years. U.S. medical-equipment producers have also been plagued by the president’s new tariffs on imported components.

Mexico ranks second to China in supplying protective medical equipment to the U.S. But Mr. Trump’s erratic threats have helped undermine confidence in building that country’s industries for export.

The administration recently offered an indictment of its own economic isolationism. It quietly—and only temporarily—reduced tariffs on a smattering of Chinese medical products. Such half-measures fall far short. If Chinese exporters face multiple demands, they will prioritize countries without tariffs or time-limited tariff suspensions.

Two researchers at the World Bank, Aaditya Mattoo and Michele Ruta, have identified another trade problem the U.S. has overlooked. By March 11, two dozen economies had restricted exports of medical supplies, including Germany, France, South Korea and Taiwan. Mr. Trump’s misstatement about shutting down trade with Europe caused anxiety among U.S. providers because the European Union is now the primary foreign supplier of America’s CT systems, hand sanitizer, patient monitors and pulse oximeters, X-ray machines and breathing masks. A mere seven countries account for 70% of the exports of artificial respirators, vital tools for the seriously ill; if one of them banned exports, prices could increase by up to 10%.

There’s a lesson in the world-wide surge of food prices from 2008-11—overlooked in nearly every retrospective analysis of the financial crisis. As president of the World Bank at that time, I worked with the World Trade Organization to limit restrictions on agricultural exports. Nevertheless, recent World Bank research shows that export limits pushed up global food prices by an average of 13% over that period, and 45% for rice.

Crises cry out for international leadership. In the postwar era, American officials reconciled global good sense with U.S. self-interest. The Trump administration should eliminate all U.S. tariffs on medical products to reduce the cost of the pandemic response, and it should urge other countries to do the same. Forty-six developing economies impose tariffs of 5% to 25% on respirators. The U.S. should rally partners in the Group of 20 to ban restrictions on exports of medical products related to Covid-19 so that the world avoids price spikes, prevents panics, gains benefits of scale and specialized production, preserves variety of sourcing—and saves lives.

In addition to coping with a pandemic, Americans face a new debate about the country’s role in the world. Some are using the pandemic to argue for greater isolation. That counsel of retreat failed miserably to counter the Great Depression in the 1930s and the security threats of 1941. As recently as the 2008 crisis, Americans learned again that they couldn’t wall themselves off from the world.

The U.S. will need to diversify sources of key supplies, and companies will need to build supply chains that are more flexible and resilient. Nations and businesses should consider prudent inventories and stockpiles. But precautions shouldn’t degrade into costly, self-defeating illusions of autarky. Export bans and tariffs on medical goods increase costs, create shortages and make Americans less safe. If other countries embrace these sorts of trade restrictions, major U.S. exporters, including farmers, will be devastated.

Modern challenges—viruses, economic disruptions, the environment, cybersecurity, food supplies and more—require economic powers to act in concert, even as they pursue their own national interests. Last year the Health Industry Distributors Association warned presciently that Mr. Trump’s medical tariffs “put a risk to our nation’s public health preparedness.” Americans are now paying the price for the president’s failure to recognize that his trade wars and walls would backfire.

Mr. Zoellick is a former World Bank president, U.S. trade representative and deputy secretary of state.

How Irrationality Might Lead to another Great Depression

As all of you can plainly see this virus is radically reshaping our economy right now.  I wanted to share with you an article I wrote (published in today's Orlando Sentinel) that will help you have better insight into what at least one economist is thinking.     If you are willing, sharing your insights into what you have experienced so far might be useful and therapeutic.

Here is the article..

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How Irrationality might lead to another Depression

As the United States, and the world, reacts to the spread of the Covid-19 virus I find myself wondering how many Americans are still alive who witnessed the economic calamity that began in October 1929.   They would come in handy right now as economic advisers to a nation that is about to panic its way into a possible second Great Depression.

It is staggering to fathom how economically myopic and reactionary our “leaders” are being at this critical time in our nation’s economic history.

Everywhere we look we are being told to go home, stay home, don’t go out; don’t interact with one another and more.  It is as if the politicians have been bestowed with some special powers to engage in policy making decisions that will somehow magically defy the laws of supply and demand.

Let’s look at it.

In an economy of more than 330 million consumers who purchase more than $20 trillion in goods and services annually, how do we continue to fuel the demand side of the economy if we are told we should not buy tickets to sporting events, hotel rooms, theme parks, restaurants and more?  If we only go out to buy toilet paper and medical masks, where do the millions of workers who depend on our purchases earn enough money to avoid being sent to the unemployment lines?

Our labor force and suppliers are also being bombarded by the doomsday scenarios outlined by those we put into office to make good decisions.

Sending labor suppliers home disrupts the entire supply chain of goods and services that prevent massive shortages, business closings and collapsing infrastructure.   The more people who are withdrawn from the labor force the greater the threat of stagflation – a combination of high unemployment and inflation – that last reared its head in the 1970’s and early 80’s.

Of course we are all being told that these decisions, while painful for a while, will be far better than leaving us alone to make our own choices of buying, selling and working.  The experts are saying that unless our lives are interrupted for an indeterminate period of time we will suffer even greater losses in the long run.

Exactly how do we know this?  What if this virus goes on into the fall?   How many months can our economy survive shattered by the possibility of accelerated cases around the globe?   What if in the meantime we see unemployment surge to levels higher than at any time since the 1930s?  What if the gross domestic product dives by double-digits?

Do we really believe that Americans are ready for an economic downturn that no one under 100 years old has ever endured?   Can we really expect deprivation on a scale that eliminates virtually all luxury spending and sends millions into poverty?

It is important to note that there is virtually nothing in the way of monetary and fiscal policy that our government could use to fight another Depression.

Interest rates are already historically low and, as we saw in the 1930’s, if people are scared to borrow, nothing the Federal Reserve Bank does can compel us to incur more debt.

Taxes are also low by historical standards.   Donald Trump’s recent cut in personal and corporate income taxes generated very small gains in revenue – an indication that more tax cuts would not create greater economic growth.

The federal deficit – fueled by profligate spending by both parties – is also near record levels so even more spending is not likely to create more jobs.

I am afraid that economic historians will someday look back at 2020 as the year our hyper-reactive society allowed elected officials to shut down the largest economy in the world and ended up destroying more lives from the ensuing economic meltdown than the virus would have.