Jon Sanders

Director of Regulatory Studies
Jon Sanders studies regulatory policy, a veritable kudzu of invasive government and unintended consequences. As director of regulatory studies at the John Locke Foundation, Jon gets into the weeds in all kinds of policy areas, including electricity, occupational licensing, hydraulic fracturing, the minimum wage, poverty and opportunity, state rulemaking, film and other incentives programs, certificates of need, and cronyism.

Posts by Jon Sanders (page 1)

  • Cooper administration now over 3 months behind the nation in reporting death data to CDC

    We still don't have enough new data from DHHS to determine if we've been seeing twin excess death events in late summer through fall. DHHS has only reported partial data through Sept. 26. Nearly all the rest of the United States has reported data through Jan. 2.
    Jon Sanders, January 21, 2021
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  • Cooper: “We have a mandatory mask order, which is one of the strongest in the country.”

    Each time (nine so far) Cooper has announced an extension or tightening of his original mask order, the average daily case numbers have been higher than they were when he originally leveled the order.
    Jon Sanders, January 20, 2021
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  • Cooper’s corporate welfare: over a half a billion dollars for … that?

    Cooper’s corporate welfare tally for 2020 is jaw-dropping: $519.3 million pledged to just 48 corporations.
    Jon Sanders, January 19, 2021

  • Why NC should envy Japan’s COVID-19 response

    The contrasts between Cooper's heavy-handed, deeply authoritarian, and woefully ineffective policies and Japan's less restrictive, more sensible virus mitigation policies are striking. So, too, are the similarities between Japan's policies and what we at John Locke have urged for North Carolina.
    Jon Sanders, January 15, 2021
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  • The Twelve Days of Mask Mess: Day 12

    Shouldn't Cooper be sobered by this study's warnings about economic damage from lockdowns? Instead, the governor flat-out warned of returning to lockdowns in announcing the very order that cited this research.
    Jon Sanders, December 25, 2020
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  • The Twelve Days of Mask Mess: Day 11

    Taking a study that starts by assuming a mask order in place cannot justify a mask order. Circular reasoning is no basis for an extreme emergency order. Also, a study that was retracted must never serve as the basis of an extreme emergency order.
    Jon Sanders, December 24, 2020
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  • The Twelve Days of Mask Mess: Day 10

    A finding of no protection cannot be the basis of an extreme emergency order. Furthermore, changing the culture is no business of an extreme emergency order.
    Jon Sanders, December 23, 2020
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  • The Twelve Days of Mask Mess: Day 9

    Regardless of how desirable a policymaker may view a particular action, a mathematical model's "theoretical results" with so much admitted "uncertainty" surrounding them that they should be "interpreted with caution" can never be sufficient for extreme emergency orders.
    Jon Sanders, December 22, 2020
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