Executive Director Dr. Graham H. Walker interviews Senior Fellow Dr. Richard K. Vedder. Dr. Vedder discusses how COVID-19 is affecting colleges and universities.

Executive Director Dr. Graham H. Walker interviews Dr. R. David Ranson (author of “Why a Pandemic Is Not a Recession.”) who argues that the most likely cause of a recession, if we are to have one in conjunction with an epidemic, is compulsive government efforts to slow the spread of a disease by extending interference in economic life to the point where it becomes counterproductive, undermining people’s livelihoods as well as ultimately their health.

In this video with thinkspot.com, Graham H. Walker (Executive Director) and Mary L. G. Theroux (Senior Vice President) at the Independent Institute examine the ominous impact of government-mandated shutdowns, multi-trillion dollar “stimulus” and welfare spending, and massive unemployment and business failures and skyrocketing federal debt.

California's AB5, the law intended to help "gig" workers by mandating they become employees of the companies for which they work, has had unintended consequences. Contracted workers such as nurses, musicians, writers, drivers, have been left with fewer jobs because it's too expensive to hire them as full time workers. Sr. Fellow Bill Evers initiated an Open Letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the California legislature to suspend AB5 to allow these workers the freedom they desire in their choice of employment.

An Open Letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the California state legislature to suspend CA AB5, was signed by over 150 scholars, economists, and political scientists. The law, AB5, was passed in 2019 and makes independent contractors or "gig" workers to be absorbed into the companies they work for. The companies cannot bear the costs of hiring workers, so these contractors are suffering. It's another law which has unintended consequences. Workers and companies are both impaired by the law, which should be suspended especially during the pandemic. Workers such as nurses, delivery drivers, musicians, and writers and other contractors have been particularly affected. Evers also talks about the readiness of educators to teach via distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

Independent Institute Sr. Fellow Williamson Evers speaks with Andy Caldwell about Evers’ list of Best Books on the Folly of Socialism and authoritarian governments and how it relates to spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Evers also talks about the Open Letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the California legislature to suspend CA AB5, a law which limits the rights of freelance workers and forces them to limit their work hours or become full-time employees. The Open Letter is signed by over 150 scholars, economists and political scientists.

An influential group of 151 economists and political scientists, are calling for the immediate suspension of California’s AB-5, a law that was passed in 2019 to regulate the use of independent contractors in a variety of activities. The “Open Letter to Suspend California AB-5” that is addressed to California Governor Gavin Newsom and all members of the California State Legislature, calls for the immediate suspension of the law, which prevents individuals from working part time in a variety of indispensable positions, especially during the coronavirus crisis. Each of the signatories is affiliated with one of forty colleges, universities, and think tanks in California.

Independent contractors, or "gig" workers have been stifled by California's law known as AB5 which forces these workers to become employees of the organization they work for. Evers initiated an Open Letter to California Governor asking him to suspend the law during the pandemic to allow critically needed workers, such as delivery services and ride share drivers, and some nurses, to continue to work as freelance workers. The Open Letter is signed by over 150 economists, scholars, and political scientists.