Shomron Center for Economic Policy Research

In Search for an efficient Institutions

August 1, 2022
by Moshe
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Obey the rules of scientific Discussion, protect family doctors

Austrian local family doctor joined the campaign for experimental vaccine(s) (as FDA confessed “Information is not yet available about potential long-term health outcomes”; see for more references “COVID-19 Library” section IV.5) promotion, with a little bit of excessive enthusiasm. She wasn’t among the principal decision-makers, but she agreed to be one of the faces, the front-woman of the campaign. This campaign brazenly ignored the rules of scientific discussion. Dissent opinions were suppressed, and all alternatives to vaccines were declared useless. Eventually, vaccine fanatical hysteria caused the adoption of draconian “law” mandating vaccination under threat of severe fines (up to 15,000 USD yearly).

Opposition against these policies became tougher and tougher. Austrian Freedom party and the newly formed MFG People Fundamental Rights Party took to the streets and protested until the Government abandoned this “law” enforcement.

The poor woman meanwhile faced more and more irritation from her patients both on the Internet and in person. They rated her personal and professional qualities lower and lower. Eventually, she committed suicide. The lesson of the story is pretty simple: never violate rules of scientific discussion, never follow Big Government interests, and never abandon your compatriots, your neighbors, and your patient’s best interests for the sake of Big power-thirsty social Bureaucracy’s best interests. The shameless politicians will never protect you, they’ll exploit your sorrow for advancing their agenda.

Following the rules of scientific discussion, revering unlimited freedom of speech and discussion can save your family doctor’s life!

July 31, 2022
by Moshe
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Costly failure of Lockdown policies

Our article claiming that lockdown policies have never been scientifically justified has been published in the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Yanovskiy M, Socol Y. Are Lockdowns Effective in Managing Pandemics? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(15):9295. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159295).

The present coronavirus crisis caused a major worldwide disruption that has not been experienced for decades. The lockdown-based crisis management was implemented by nearly all countries, and studies confirming lockdown effectiveness can be found alongside the studies questioning it. In this work, we performed a narrative review of the works studying the above effectiveness, as well as the historical experience of previous pandemics and risk-benefit analysis based on the connection of health and wealth. Our aim was to learn lessons and analyze ways to improve the management of similar events in the future. The comparative analysis of different countries showed that the assumption of lockdowns’ effectiveness cannot be supported by evidence—neither regarding the present COVID-19 pandemic nor regarding the 1918–1920 Spanish Flu and other less-severe pandemics in the past. The price tag of lockdowns in terms of public health is high: by using the known connection between health and wealth, we estimate that lockdowns may claim 20 times more life years than they save. It is suggested therefore that a thorough cost-benefit analysis should be performed before imposing any lockdown for either COVID-19 or any future pandemic.

May 22, 2022
by Moshe
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Costs of Lockdowns in Israel – new article in “Inquiry”

The paper just published in INQUIRY: Cost-Effectiveness Threshold for Healthcare: Justification and Quantification. The material is basically a little bit boring. Do not miss the Appendix (counting lost Life Years as a result of lockdowns imposed on us by the Government here in Israel). While the link provided in the text doesn’t work properly use the following link to the Appendix.

The paper challenges governmental intervention in cases of “medical events” (disasters, pandemics, and the like). These interventions have a price measured in human life lost (and this point is not new at all). So, governmental emergency intervention is targeted to protect human lives and break normal routine lives, harming incomes and thus shortening human lives. So the emergency intervention ought to be justified by proven harm prevented. We had developed not so complicated procedure of counting minimal thresholds justifying the possibility of intervention. We counted the human life price (about 500 thousand normal quality life years) of lockdowns imposed on Israeli people in 2020.

May 8, 2022
by Moshe
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Hamas threatens to swing the gates of hell open for Israel … again?

Opposition MK presses the Government of Israel to kill Hamas leaders after a series of murderous terrorist attacks. Prime minister Bennet could be personally interested in killing Hamas leaders due to saving his shaky Government or, in the worst case, to strengthen his bleeding Yamina on the eve of new elections.

Hamas leaders just made these simple political calculations and have become very unhappy. They threaten Israel with a “regional earthquake’ if leaders are assassinated”.

It is an excellent time to remind what actually happened after Israel (then prime minister A.Sharon was in charge) had annihilated sheikh Ahmed Yassin – the “spiritual leader” of Hamas March 2004 and then, just in a few weeks killed the operative chief of Hamas Abdel al-Rantisi. Hamas had threatened “to swing the gates of hell open for Israel“.

Actually, something opposite has happened. Hamas had switched resources to prepare an attack against Fath (capture of the Gaza strip) and substantially limited its’ terrorist activities (see here fig. 1).

April 17, 2022
by Moshe
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Coercive Policies and Some Reactions to the Coercion in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: update

Since votes at Hungary’s Parliament Elections and 1st Round of Presidential elections in France have been counted, the paper “Coercive Policies and Some Reactions to the Coercion in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic” (supplementary to our “COVID-19 Library. Filling the Gaps“) has been updated.
1st Round of Presidential elections gives the best opportunity to observe the current ideological preferences of the citizens of France. There is quite a significant number of politicians are registered every time to run, representing all significant positions from across the political spectrum.

In the 2nd Round, acting president – the promoter of lockdowns & compulsory vaccination M.E. Macron faced the candidate with a dissenting opinion, endorsed by E.Zemmour and Dupont-Aignan (among the 1st Round candidates – 9.2% combined). M.E. Macron won endorsements of traditional parties (Republican and Socialists’ candidates; the Green party candidate also endorsed Macron, 11.1% combined), while 3rd leader Mélenchon has called to vote against Le Pen.
Macron won the support of 58.54% of voters in the 2nd Round of Elections, M. Le Pen 41.46% (66.1 : 33.9 respectively in the 2nd round of 2017 Elections ). So, it is clear, that a sizeable share of Mélenchons’ 1st round voters had voted for Le Pen in the 2nd Round. One cannot say for sure, how many of them voted against their favorite candidate’s recommendation because COVID-19 policies were an issue of crucial importance. The speculation on the share of staunch opponents of coercive policies in France is well above 5% and, maybe even making up to 10% looks quite reasonable.

March 1, 2022
by Moshe
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We can’t afford more economic nonsense. New Position Paper on lessons for Israel from Ukraine invasion of Putin

Socialist, ‘green’ experiments had weakened Western economic power and emboldened Putin. Economic power is one of the key advantages of Israel in the Middle East and the basis for our military power. We can’t afford useless and dangerous political decisions harming our economy. We can’t afford to burden our business with heavy unjustified and frivolous regulations. We must scrap all this nonsense for the sake of our economic growth and, first and foremost, for the sake of our security.

Position paper “Learning the Lessons from the Ukrainian War for Israel Economic Policies. We can’t afford more economic nonsenses” strongly recommends:

To encourage the development of the gas industry on the reliable basis of well-defined private property rights on gas fields.
To scrap sophisticated, burdensome, and generally useless regulations imposed on business. To repeal ‘traditional’ – above-mentioned business regulation is needed as well as the elimination of the ‘new’ regulations restricting private freedom under the pretext of ‘anti-discrimination’. To repeal ‘COVID-19’ coercive measures – let return right to decide to the patient and to his doctor (to vaccinate or not, if yes – how many times, to use old-fashioned or newly invented drugs, etc.).

Reserve a link to the paper.

February 27, 2022
by Moshe
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Few Lessons from the Ukrainian War for Israel

We can’t afford more economic nonsenses

Weak leadership and socialist policies of the Western Governments, weak Ukrainian economy and Army, and rapid increase in gas-oil incomes combined, had encouraged Putin to start his all-out war against the neighboring country.

D.Trump[1] provided a simple and highly relevant explanation of Putin’s bold assault:

Russia has become very … rich during the Biden Administration, with oil prices doubling and soon to be tripling and quadrupling. The weak sanctions are insignificant relative to taking over a country and a massive piece of strategically located land.

Now it has begun, oil prices are going higher and higher, and Putin is not only getting what he always wanted, but getting, because of the oil and gas surge, richer and richer. The U.S. was energy independent under the Trump Administration, independence that we had never obtained before, and oil prices would have remained low…”

Israel’s Government had stopped exploring our gas fields for purely ideological, not economic, or security reasons.[2]

The only reliable scientific (economic) advice on how to encourage both, economic progress and a cautious approach to the environment is to secure private property rights and to provide well-defined delimitation of these rights on lands, forests (case of Finland), etc. Secured and well-defined for generations property rights cause strong personal interest to care about clean air and water (see, first and foremost, classical Ronald Coase book (Coase, 1988[3]). The governmental care for the environment manifests a clear case of ownerless property, therefore, ownerless ‘public’ resource is routinely doomed to predatory use.[4]  So caring government can’t prove successful in environmental protection comparable to privately owned lands and forests.[5]

We had imposed a heavy regulatory burden on our business.[6]  The business climate in Israel is rated among the worst among developed countries (OECD members) and far behind some developing countries (like Georgia).

In addition to ‘traditional’ (Doing Business measured) costs: “trading across the border”; “registering property”, “getting electricity”, “Construction permit” etc. our business suffers the heavy burden of ‘anti-discrimination’ control, manifesting, in fact, assault on freedom of private contracts.[7] 

Last, but not least, we shocked our economy numerous times without any scientific foundation by lockdowns (see for references the Library, III.3 and latest update February, 16)[8] Then we assaulted businesses and households by useless coercion to vaccination.[9] To say nothing of surprising preference for expensive experimental vaccines over reliable old and cheap drugs outlawed by healthcare bureaucracy.[10]

All these wrong decisions sent a message of weakness to our numerous enemies, encouraging their resolution to invest in wars against Israel.

We need further development of the gas industry on the reliable basis of well-defined private property in gas fields.

We can’t afford sophisticated, burdensome, and generally useless regulations imposed on business. We need to cut off ‘traditional’ – above-mentioned business regulation costs and eliminate the ‘new’ regulations restricting private freedom under the pretext of ‘anti-discrimination’.

We can’t afford to waste resources on ‘COVID-19’ coercive measures – let return right to decide to the patient and to his doctor (to vaccinate or not, if yes – how many times, to use old-fashioned or newly invented drugs, etc.).

Drop all this nonsense, break with self-destructive policies now, and send the most impressive signal of our force to our enemies.


[1] https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/donald-trump-russia-vladimir-putin-ukraine/2022/02/22/id/1057933/

[2] https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Israel-Stops-Onshore-Oil-Exploration-Permits.html

[3] Coase R.H.. The Firm, The Market, and The Law, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

[4] See: Hardin  Garrett. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, New Series, Vol. 162, No. 3859 (Dec. 13, 1968), pp. 1243-1248.

[5] https://www.wri.org/insights/3-reasons-property-rights-are-essential-healthy-ecosystems

[6] https://www.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/country/i/israel/ISR.pdf  Doing Business (WB Project) measures in days/money costs of doing business in Tel Aviv; the worst situation in “trading across the border”; “registering property”, “getting electricity”, “Construction permit”; https://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2021/countries/2021_IndexofEconomicFreedom-Israel.pdf (the country rated below “the most free” group); Fraser Institute “Economic Freedom in the World” – 2019 Israel is rated 43rd https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/economic-freedom.

[7] See Block Walter. The Case for Discrimination. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010 and a case of 2013 analysis: Block W. Are Criminal and other Background Checks Racially Discriminatory? 2013:   https://www.mises.ca/are-criminal-and-other-background-checks-racially-discriminatory/

[8] Yanovskiy M, Socol Y. “COVID-19 Library. Filling the Gaps’”   https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3784709  and Yanovskiy M.  “The Latest Update for ‘COVID-19 Library. Filling the Gaps’” respectively. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4034961

[9] The same “Library” III.5, IV.5 https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3784709   “Mandatory vaccination’

[10] The same “Library“ III.6.

February 19, 2022
by Moshe
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‘Liberal’ Emergency Power to quell peaceful protest in Canada

Liberal Government of Canada: Emergency Act to quell peaceful protests
State Emergency to save mandates

The Epoch Times

WSJ

Provincial prime ministers’ opinions are divided, while Ontario’s prime minister promises to lift vaccination passports effective March 1, 2022.
‘We Will Hold the Line’: Freedom Convoy Organizers Say They’re Not Deterred by Emergencies Act
Police Assault on a peaceful gathering
Police arrest top Freedom Convoy leaders in a sweep of protesters Chief vows to end demonstration against COVID vaccines this weekend February, 18

WND
FOXNews
DailyWire

Pay attention, the ‘Liberal’ Government is not bothered to bring its’ ‘Emergency Power’ to Parliament vote by the date.

For updates on ‘liberal’ oppression in old Democracies for the sake of ‘corona-safety’ see our notes ‘Coercive Policies and Some Reactions to the Coercion in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

“When violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: ‘I am violence. Run away, make way for me — I will crush you.’ But violence quickly grows old,” Solzhenitsyn wrote in Live Not By Lies. “After only a few years it loses confidence in itself, and in order to maintain a respectable face it summons falsehood as its ally — since violence can conceal itself with nothing except lies, and the lies can be maintained only by violence. Violence does not lay its paw on every shoulder every day: it demands from us only obedience to lies and daily participation in lies.”

February 14, 2022
by Moshe
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COVID-19 Library update and Supplementary materials

The new updated version of “COVID-19 Library. Filling the Gaps” contains important references on the mandatory vaccination issues. Mandatory vaccination by the experimental vaccine (FDA and CDC agree that “Information is not yet available about potential long-term health outcomes…”) looks highly problematic.

The “Economic Impact of lockdowns” section now includes a reference to an important piece penned by Marek Dabrowski “Fiscal arithmetic and risk of sovereign insolvency“.

The new Supplementary material to the Library “Coercive Policies and some reactions to the coercion in the time of COVID-19 Pandemic” is basically consisting of the references collection, providing information on political actions / public reactions to leading established Democracies’ coercive strategy for response to COVID-19 pandemics.

The separate small paper available at SSRN contains new important references not included at the moment in the “official” text of the Library.

April 12, 2021
by Moshe
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Experts and Science under COVID-19: The Curse of Government funding?

1st published April 12, 2021

I’ve noticed the following conflict of interest reporting puzzle, working on “COVID-19 Library. Filling the Gaps“. Almost all the “people of Science” rallying around never proven efficient harsh measures empowering the governmental bureaus and, at the same time getting funds from the budget under the auspice of the same bureaus, surprisingly never declaring their conflict of interest. They are interested in more and more funds from the budget, so they are pushing more powerful, ‘bigger’ and ‘bolder’ unlimited Government and not feeling any problems in this regard.

Diagram 1. Voting History of Federal District of Columbia. Sources: https://dcboe.org/Elections/Election-Results-Archives; https://electionresults.dcboe.org/election_results/2020-General-Election

So it isn’t surprising they are ready to be aggressively partisan (say, anti-Trump in the USA sharing preferences of Washington bureaucrats – see FDC voting history). Worse, the “cancel culture” and the war on “whiteness” looks like they destroyed the residuals of moral self-restrictions, so the authors proving the loss of social-economic status (SES) harming health and life expectancy badly could publicly denouncing Trumps’ statement ‘We cannot let the cure be worse than the Problem itself to claim that the crisis is good for health and even to reference on their own book proving the opposite (see for details Who Teaches the Fact-Checkers or Why Trump Must Be Wrong? https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3771015).

The Omnipotent Government push for government-run Healthcare making Doctor to a greater extent bureaucrats, not accountable to the patient and to society’s noble expert. Mandatory vaccination spoils pharmaceutical firms’ incentives as investing in the desirable political decision-making turned out to be more profitable than in R&D, to say nothing on information for consumers about vaccines for really informed consent). Mandatory healthcare causes dangerous temptations for physicians and is a really big threat to patients. Informational Asymmetry Problem became more and more grave and troublesome for the patients. While under free society and democratic rule, the information asymmetry problem is mitigated more or less successfully by a number of reliable, tested solutions, under totalitarian rule, doctor-patient asymmetry is not counted as a problem at all, at best (see for details “Institutional Aspects of the Power Abuse Problem in Healthcare Under Totalitarian Rule: Case of Nazi Germany” https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3724313).