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Some Non-Covid Links

My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy reports on a truly loathsome attitude that government bailouts of airlines have instilled in at least some airline executives.

My colleague Bryan Caplan is correct that discrimination should be deregulated.

Here’s Arnold Kling on discourse in modern economics.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Pat Garofalo and my old friend Mike LaFaive make the case against subsidies to movie producers. A slice:

Moviemakers play states against one another, leading to a cycle of bigger movie subsidies as lawmakers try not to be outbid by their neighbors. Analyst Robert Tannenwald has called this “perpetual competitive purgatory.”

The history of film subsidies shows the dynamic at work. Louisiana was the first to spend big money on subsidies for moviemaking. It had a small program that started in 1992, but a major expansion in 2002 caused scores of major productions to rush to the Bayou State. That inspired other states to start their own programs, and Louisiana had to spend to keep up. Costs spiraled out of control. Eventually lawmakers capped the subsidy program.

Robby Soave reports on how wokism devours its own. (Babylon Bee couldn’t make up stuff such as this incident on which Robby reports.)

Steven Greenhut argues that conservatives’ attacks on Facebook and other tech companies “are turning the constitution on its head.

George Will’s latest. A slice:

The unceasing torrent of political proclamations from people whose politics are not germane to their vocations raises a question. Why do people who have nothing intelligent to say insist on proving this? The urgent question, however, is whether the ideologies of the speakers, and the sensitivities of their anticipated auditors, have produced a new etiquette: Politeness is understood as genuflection at approved political altars. Today, verifiable truth is just one option among many, with a standing inferior to any ideological agenda that the truth inconveniences.

My Mercatus Center colleague Adam Thierer is always worth reading – and listening to.

Another Mercatus Center colleague – Michael Farren – explains that there aren’t enough people getting back to work.

GMU Econ alum Mark Perry documents creative destruction.

Juliette Sellgren talks with Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle about failure.

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