The Pandemic and the Human Freedom Index

When you're worried about the world, especially when it seems like the threat comes from the outside, then people start to build walls and turn inwards. And so that when the pandemic hits, what really is happening during the pandemic is that almost all well, most of the different categories of freedom that we look at fall. Almost every indicator of economic freedom, not just freedom to trade falls. You can say that the pandemic had that extra effect that a crisis had, but it was probably more severe. I mean, there was no doubt that it was more severe than the financial crisis in terms of the loss of freedom. It certainly did accelerate trends that were already happening beforehand.