As I write, Britain and a whole host of other countries are in lockdown. Although there has been a loosening of arrangements in recent weeks, at its outset people were asked/told to stay indoors and go out as little as possible. Many people had - and continue to have - a large proportion of their wages paid by the state.
Brian and I talk about this crisis which has now been going on for 10 weeks. Did I say talk? Meander might be a better way of putting it. We talk about safety, analogies with war, Ludwig Erhard, the capitalism-needs-war argument and even child-rearing. We agree - thus making for a dull conversation - that there are a great deal of unknowns and it is thus difficult to be sure of anything.
Where we disagree is on whether the baked-into-the-cake economic collapse is a good thing or a bad thing. Being an Austrian purist I say that the economy is built on foundations of sand and the sooner it collapses the better. Brian is not so sure. But we agree - dullsville once again - that the way out is the same way the West Germans chose in the late 1940s. Whether or not we get that is another thing.
Notes
I may have been wrong about the ironwork
Here is an example of what price control does
I think this is the J.P.Floru book Brian is referring to
The Labour Budget: Don't hold your breath
Why is America saying "no" to the Japanese?
Give them the money!
Mussolini wins
Farcical sentences
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