Walter Williams on the breakdown of law enforcement during 2020 riots

That brings me to one of the most disturbing aspects of the rioting and looting. That is the seeming impotence of people whom we elect and pay to enforce the law. That includes governors, mayors and police chiefs who refuse to use their law enforcement powers to protect citizens and their property from criminals. Unfortunately, politicians who call for law and order are often viewed negatively. But that makes little sense. Poor people are more dependent on law and order than anyone else. In the face of high crime or social disorder, wealthier people can afford to purchase alarm systems, buy guard dogs, hire guards and, if things get too bad, move to a gated community. These options are not available to poor people. Their only protection is an orderly society.

~ Walter Williams, "Now What?," LewRockwell.com, June 17, 2020

Andy Serwer on common thread underlying recent shocking news

The recent spate of shocking news—rioting in Minneapolis and cities across the country, 100,000-plus COVID-19 deaths, unprecedented tension with China and President Trump’s escalated ranting and bizarre-o battle with Twitter—may seem disparate and complex.

And yet underlying all of this is a single, simple thread. It is an obstruction of truth by those with a personal or political agenda. In a way then, all this news is really one story. It’s about how we’re being distracted from facts and real underlying issues. This clouding is what makes our complicated world that much more difficult to sort out and so too staking a middle ground.

~ Andy Serwer, "The common thread underlying the riots, Covid, China, Twitter and Trump," Yahoo Finance, May 30, 2020

Jim Grant on the panic of 2020

That the central bankers do not always control events, but that events sometimes overwhelm the central bankers, is one lesson of the panic of 2020.

~ Jim Grant, "Biggest hearts, lowest rates," Grant's Interest Rate Observer, March 20, 2020

Joseph Sobran on order vs. chaos

The measure of the state's success is that the word anarchy frightens people while the word state does not.

~ Joseph Sobran