America today faces the most ominous threat to freedom as we’ve known in many generations. The reason and occasion: a pandemic disease. It and the policy response to it has changed fundamentally almost everything we used to take for granted: the right to earn a living, the right to travel, the right to associate, and even hope in the future itself. The calamity has been unparalleled, with social, economic, and political consequences yet unknown. All we really know is that nothing will be the same.

The conventional wisdom is that the American coronavirus experience officially began on January 21, 2020; on that day, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the first domestic case had been discovered in Washington State. For roughly five weeks, news of an escalating health crisis in Wuhan Province had been leaking out of China—much of it surreptitiously reported via anonymous social media accounts.

It was not long before the inevitability of the disease's spread became clear, and less than a week after the disease had reached the US, the American Institute for Economic Research's first article on the uncoiling pandemic appeared, with many more to follow.

This book chronicles AIER's coverage of the opening phase of the world coronavirus outbreak, through the full onset of the crisis, with speculations on the future of wealth and liberty in light of both the virus and the political response.

May this book serve as important documentation of what this country and the world can learn for the future.

This book includes contributions from

• Vincent Geloso
• Jeffrey Tucker
• Bruce Yandle
• Peter C. Earle
• James L. Caton
• Raymond C. Niles
• Robert E. Wright
• Joakim Book
• John Tamny
• Robert Hughes
• Stephen Davies
• Brett Dalton
• Scott A. Burns
• Edward Stringham
• Art Carden
• Adam Thierer
• Micha Gartz
• William J. Luther
• Allen Mendenhall
• Stephen C. Miller
• Veronique de Rugy
• Max Gulker
• Richard M. Salsman
• Richard M. Ebeling.

Peter C. Earle is an economist and writer who joined AIER in 2018 and prior to that spent over 20 years as a trader and analyst in global financial markets on Wall Street.

His research focuses on financial markets, monetary policy, virtual and cryptocurrencies, and issues in economic measurement. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, NPR, and in numerous other publications.

Pete holds an MA in Applied Economics from American University, an MBA (Finance), and a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The American Institute for Economic Research in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was founded in 1933 as the first independent voice for sound economics in the United States. Today it publishes ongoing research, hosts educational programs, publishes books, sponsors interns and scholars, and is home to the world-renowned Bastiat Society and the highly respected Sound Money Project. The American Institute for Economic Research is a 501c3 public charity.