Image credit: Dewald Aukema
Historian Niall Ferguson says government bureaucracy is to blame for inadequate preparation and slow U.S. COVID-19 response.
COVID-19 has been a generation-defining event for the entire world, but especially here in the United States where more than half a million people have been killed by the coronavirus. Many people are unsure as to who is to blame for this disastrous lack of preparedness. Some believe the slow response is the fault of public health agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One historian says that we can learn a lot by putting the pandemic in the more broad historical context of other crises humanity has endured.
US Financial Regulators Moving ‘Very Fast’ to Take on Climate Change
WASHINGTON Financial regulators around the world are rushing to implement models to measure the financial risk arising from climate change. Central banks including the Federal Reserve may soon begin to implement climate stress tests of banks, which may limit financing for industries such as mining, oil, and gas.
The world’s largest central banks are pondering how to promote green financing, as they seek to introduce regulatory frameworks to “mobilize” more money for green and low-carbon investments.
Critics, however, argue that the proposals to introduce climate stress tests aim to “defund the fossil fuel industry” and steer funds to “fashionable but unprofitable investments.”
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The Federalist, as he welcomes
Niall Ferguson, Ph.D. Dr. Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the author of a number of titles including
Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.
In this conversation, Dr. Ferguson and Ben discuss what past pandemics can tell us about the possible long-term impacts of COVID-19, how the Coronavirus became a catalyst for institutional mistrust, and solutions for addressing big tech censorship.
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by Tyler Durden
Saturday, May 01, 2021 - 10:35 PM
This essay is adapted from Mr. Ferguson’s new book, “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe,” which will be published by Penguin Press on May 4. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
In 1957, the U.S. rose to the challenge of the ‘Asian flu’ with stoicism and a high tolerance for risk, offering a stark contrast with today’s approach to Covid-19.
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,/But to be young was very heaven!” Wordsworth was talking about France in 1789, but the line applies better to the America of 1957. That summer, Elvis Presley topped the charts with “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear.” But we tend to forget that 1957 also saw the outbreak of one of the biggest pandemics of the modern era. Not coincidentally, another hit of that year was “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” by Huey “Piano” Smith & the Clowns.