by Leo Morris It is worth noting, in the thick of our great national quarantine, that we have gone in a heartbeat from an ordinary civil society to a step short of martial law. That’s something worth thinking about. And worrying about just a little. As the War on Terror was being rolled out – Lord, has it been nearly two decades? – I wrote an editorial for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel warning that we…

by Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. The Black Death ravaged Europe, starting in Italy, in the middle of the 14th century. Substantial percentages of entire populations died — estimates range between 30 and 60 percent. Maybe 75 to 200 million people. Would it have made any difference for overall living standards if Spain could have tapped on its subsequent influx of gold from Central and South America? That is, would the substantial increase in the money…

IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS, with pretense stripped away, the truth can strike like a lightening bolt. That was the case at a recent meeting of my City Council. When the governor shut down restaurants and bars in advance of the Wuhan flu it was made clear that what we had been told was economic development had precious little to do with developing anything — rather, that it was about who could crony what capital…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. You may remember Andrew Yang. He was a Democratic candidate for President who had a surprisingly successful run. He didn’t have any political experience. And unlike most of his competitors, he brims with joy and thoughtfulness about policy. His most intriguing (and popular) proposal is to give every American $1,000 per month.  With COVID-19, some politicians have been pitching similar proposals — at least temporarily, during the crisis. As usual, it…

by John Teevan, D.Min. Our economy is disintegrating, but we are getting a good start on COVID-19. We can handle a few weeks of staying home, but now isolation is turning into a shutdown disaster that could economically harm virtually every American. A stepped program, however, could addresses both concerns in what could be called a phase II of this struggle. We can begin by recognizing our progress, sobering up to realities and taking deliberate steps. The first reality is that COVID-19 is a…

by Leo Morris Some years ago, life as I knew it was put on a sudden and dramatic hiatus in the form of an inattentive driver who attempted to cross U.S. 30 near Plymouth in the path of our car. My left hip was broken and, this being before insurance companies decided an overnight stay was sufficient for anything less than a heart attack accompanied by a brain tumor and multiple gunshot wounds, I spent…

by Ken Bisson, M.D. As a retired physician I have been following the developments of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic with interest. I think there will continue to be great disruptions to our economy for the short term. We are all becoming familiar with the obvious disruptions to our “old normal” routines. But I believe a “new normal” will be developing in several months.  My contemporaries are all too fond of saying, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”…

WITH THE WUHAN VIRUS upon us we are gaining perspective on the Holcomb administration’s “leadership” style. It boils down to this: If there is the possibility of criticism, based on even the most narrow or isolated of anecdotal misfortunes, they throw principle out the window. The tenant-landlord relationship is an example. The administration, fearing an Indianapolis Star photo of some evicted tenant or another sitting forlornly by some curb, suspended centuries-old laws of private property…

MY FRIENDS KNOW THAT l tell these stories too often, especially in chaotic times. So I promise to keep them short on the chance they might guide those fashioning Indiana public policy today. First, the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 (also called the Loma Prieta earthquake, perhaps to avoid upsetting San Francisco realtors) caused 63 deaths, 3,800 injuries, and an estimated $6 billion in damage. This, please know, was a time when CNN was a reliable news source,…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Economists talk about the “human capital” and “signaling-screening” aspects of education. The impact of the COVID-19 virus on schools and students allows us to consider these two ways in which schooling is useful for individuals and society. Human capital is the role of education in building general and specific skills. In elementary and secondary schools, it is foundational — basic knowledge and basic skills in literacy, fluency, numeracy and socialization. In college, human capital accumulation…