The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 25 March 2020

Air Date: 
March 25, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleague:  David Livingston, The Space Show
 
Hour One
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block A:  John Catsimatidis, Red Apple Media, in re:  The state of the city, of the state, of the unin.   . . .  Over the last days, the stimulus was said to  be $2 trillion; and now Mrs Pelosi has flown in with a passel of, frankly, irrelevant demands, including funding new curtains for the Kennedy Center.
 
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Henry Miller, Pacific Institute of  Research; in re: Serology and the virus.
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover; in re: Beginning the public debate on the question of the governor-ordered restrictions in the time of the virus.  Where did you get your numbers? Epidemiology is a guessing game when you don't have good numbers.
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover; in re: Beginning the public debate on the question of the governor-ordered restrictions in the time of the virus.  Where did you get your numbers? Epidemiology is a guessing game when you don't have good numbers.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness; in re: . . .  Mrs Pelosi has flown in with either provocations or  . . . This was despicable, beyond the pale: cramming it with pork for constituencies in order to get reelected while in the middle of a true pandemic.  Beneath the contempt of the American people.  “I think Mrs Pelosi thought the airlines would get a $0 billion grant, but that was limited by the green new deal.”  This will lead to nationalization of the airlines; is that what she intends? Where this is leading is to re-drawing districts.    The leftleft is feeling more comfortable; they’re in very safe districts and can afford to propose crazy stuff.
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness; in re: Primaries have been delayed till June; Bernie refuses to drop out or concede; Biden says the debates are no longer necessary. (His handlers want to keep him out of public view as much as possible, for unfortunately obvious reasons.) 
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  John Cochrane, Hoover, in re:  Does $2 trillion answer the hole in the US economy now that there’s no commerce?  Of course not. We’ll just have to pay for it all in taxes.   . . .  We’re protecting the oldest among us with the future of the youngest of us. This economic shutdown is the panic button; you’re supposed to defend against a pandemic with [medical actions].  Larry Kudlow mentioned $6 trillion! Use the Defense Production Act?  Not necessary; can just drop regulatory barriers. Maybe the Act was good for WWII.  The Taiwanese, Singaporean and South Korean models:  when you hear of a virus, quickly test test test; isolate people who have it and lock down  their areas—that costs billions, not trillions.  Bailouts, now called loans to troubled corporations.  When you do that, you're bailing out stockholders and bondholders; a bankruptcy there is [not the end of the world]. Lending is better than grants.  Handing out money then demanding that the govt appoint board members . . .!  The Fed knows how t keep banks [alive]; I worry about non-banks, which could be on the edge of [a catastrophe] if w e get a wave of bankruptcies.. 
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block D:  Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center, in re: Economics in the time of the virus.  . . . They’re thinking, “It’s better to give ’way more than to leave anyone out.”
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 3, Block A:  Salena Zito, The Middle of Somewhere column, in re:   Drive-in movie theater in Pittsburgh area now being used for church service; the SUVs keep social distance from each other,
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 3, Block B:  Salena Zito, The Middle of Somewhere column, in re:   Monroe Co., PA, and the virus: it’s a rural area, where 20,000 people ride in to New York in busses. Worried about the virus.
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:  Space engineering. 
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:  Space exploration.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 4, Block A: Bill McGurn, WSJ, in re: Ventilators being made at General Motors.
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 4, Block B: Dan Griswold, @DanielGriswold, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, &  Co-Director of its Trade and Immigration Project; in re: The return of globalization, which is the source of our prosperity. Adjusting the supply chains is not rejecting globalization but becoming sophisticated about it.
 
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 4, Block C: Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover; in re: Beginning the public debate on the question of the governor-ordered restrictions in the time of the virus.  Where did you get your numbers? Epidemiology is a guessing game when you don't have good numbers.
Wednesday 25 March 2020  / Hour 4, Block D:  Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover; in re: Beginning the public debate on the question of the governor-ordered restrictions in the time of the virus.  Where did you get your numbers? Epidemiology is a guessing game when you don't have good numbers.