| Deciphering What's Reasonable and Realistic That is shutting down the entrepreneurs and developers of new technology that throughout human history have supplied surprising answers to human afflictions. It is reasonable to tell anyone who wants to hold a gathering that they have to figure out how to conduct it without propagating the virus. It is not reasonable simply to close down all gatherings. In a semiconductor wafer fab, everyone already wears masks and seals off their bodies. Comparable garb could be extended to other factories. Or disinfectant sprays could be used in ingenious ways. Or tests could be developed that register immunity to the virus (antibodies) and those certified immune could be licensed to perform roles banned to the susceptible. We should be extremely careful not to ban new technologies such as facial recognition that can enable less intrusive and more individualized methods of quarantine, emancipation, advertising, and personal alerts. We should remember that photography itself aroused widespread and sometimes hysterical protest because of its potential to invade privacy. We got over it. Just because some totalitarian monster might use a technology to perform his horrors, we should not ban it for civilized peoples. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Genghis Khan did not need facial recognition or tele–thermometers. In order to avoid crude pop–up "minuses" or value subtracted ads, Life After Television or Life After Google depends upon advertisers knowing the relevant details about the desires of their potential customers, including the times when they do not want to see any ads at all. Advertisers do not want to offend and estrange their markets. We should strongly resist price controls that deprive producers of new equipment or pharmaceuticals of the profits to expand their production. That means not defying the rule of capitalism whereby the initial examples of a new technology are expensive enough to finance the move down the learning curve to large volumes and low prices. Experimental rich people are indispensable to the launch of most ambitious new products. The discovery that many illnesses and susceptibilities are genetic offers huge new hope for individualized medicine. Without individualized medicine, the interest of public health would entail ever more far reaching interventions as medical science advanced. Among likely outcomes would be hurtful interactions among various policies. For example, locking everyone indoors and sending possibly asymptomatic students' home may needlessly infect the vulnerable elderly. Stopping outdoor exercise may lead to new mental and physical illnesses. Restricting wealth will limit lifegiving knowledge, learning and care. Designing the world chiefly for the sick elderly may deplete the world for the young. A vast vaccination drive among old people for coronavirus might conflict with vaccinations against deadly children's diseases. Policy making under these conditions of multiple tradeoffs and conflicting priorities is a matter of judgement and leadership. There is no shortcut of deterministic expertise. But economics cannot be banished from the table. Today's Prophecy Economics is the science of tradeoffs and the ultimate measure is time. As hard as it might before an elderly worker like me to acknowledge, our time tends to be less valuable to the society than the time of workers in their prime. Even old people benefit more from policies that favor the creativity of the young than from policies that focus on people near the ends of their lives. We also should defend the world of investment. The various exchanges that we use are what transforms mere money into innovation and creativity. A flight to various safe havens tends to be a flight into the past. My favorite legal commentator Philip Howard posted crucial wisdom today: "This crisis exposes a core flaw of the modern state: it is designed to preempt human responsibility at the point of action. Just follow the rules…"
"Americans can achieve public goals much better if given room to take responsibility. This crisis proves it — both the red tape ineptitude at the start, and the heroic resourcefulness once the rulebooks were tossed. Real people, not rules, make things happen. It's time for a spring cleaning in Washington." Data is about the past. Enterprise is about the future. Perhaps the most important message that the information theory of economics imparts in this epoch of crisis is that money is time. Wanton manipulation and multiplication of money represents a rebellion against time. As I have been pointing out, central banks and treasuries can print money but they cannot print time. And supply creates its own demand. Monetary demand in itself does not generate supply. It falsifies the crucial signposts of time in the economies that sustain our lives and healthcare. Regards, 
George Gilder
Editor, Gilder's Daily Prophecy P.S. While being stuck at home like most of us, my colleague James Altucher has been able to focus on opportunities like this one strategy dealing with volatile markets. James accidentally stumbled across this again recently due to current events and wanted my readers to see it. He created a brief video that shows how you could protect your money and see potential profits. Click here to check it out. | 
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