“Covid-19 Lockdowns and their Ratchet Effect of Increasing Government Control” with Steve Hanke

AIER's Bastiat Society program in Washington, DC hosted a virtual event with Dr. Steve Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics and Founder & Co-Director of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, federal and state governments have responded with varying levels of new and prolonged restrictions on human activity as well as unprecedented deficit spending by the federal government and money creation by the Federal Reserve. Professor Hanke examines the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns across the United States over the past 15 months and how they have exacerbated the “Ratchet Effect” of ever-increasing government activity and control, i.e. once government gains new authorities, it doesn’t give them up.