COVID, Inc.

Federal, state, and local governments have plenty of power over private sector operations that they can wield during a crisis.

A police officer crosses the street in a nearly empty Times Square in New York on March 12, 2020. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

Commentary

It was Democrat hit man Rahm Emanuel who infamously advised (in the less-quoted follow-up version) that you should “never allow a good crisis to go to waste when it’s an opportunity to do things that you had never considered, or that you didn’t think were possible.” And, although Mr. Emanuel’s only apparent foray into business was somehow making more than $16 million in 2 1/2 years working at the Chicago office of an investment bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions, CEOs have profited from following his ruthless maxim.