Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“For the past couple of years, American politicians on the left and right have competed to define a political buzzword: affordability. Does it mean increasing individual resources to meet everyday costs? Or raising the output of goods and services to lower prices? Or both? On Tuesday, Congress did the country a favor by passing a bill – in a rare case of broad bipartisanship – that helps give common meaning to the word. The measure puts a stamp of approval on an often unescapable law: that supply will rise to meet demand when free to do so. The bill, which still awaits the president’s approval, mandates a range of initiatives aimed mainly at raising the nation’s housing stock. It would reduce production bottlenecks rather than raise subsidies for home purchases. The number of parts in the legislation itself reflects how much lawmakers endorse a supply-positive approach.” (06/24/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0624/Congress-blows-the-roof-off-home-supply

Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander

“In recent posts on Trump and dictatorship, people have asked me – how do you know you’re not suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome? I take this seriously; we’ve all lost loved ones to this condition. The best check on my reasoning would be an objective measure of the health of American democracy. There are several ‘democracy indices’ that purport to do this, but they have a mixed reputation. … The newest entrant in this space – Metaculus Democracy Threat Index – works differently, and deserves a closer look.” (06/25/26)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-metaculus-threat-to-democracy

Source: The UnPopulist
by Mike Masnick

“Facebook in 2011 was already a centralized platform owned by a single company. What changed was that the underlying incentives of that centralized architecture had time to work. Centralized systems create chokepoints. Chokepoints, once they exist, attract everyone with an interest in squeezing them: companies looking to extract more value from users, governments looking to extract compliance from companies, and political movements looking to extract influence from both. In 2011, Facebook hadn’t yet figured out how lucrative those chokepoints would be, or how much leverage they offered to the powerful. By 2025, everyone had figured it out.” (06/25/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/how-the-internet-became-a-tool-for

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie

“There is an aesthetic and romantic tradition, a very old strand of thought predating socialism, and going back through Ruskin and Morris to Romantic-era reactions against industrialization. It simply finds modernity ugly, hurried, and spiritually depleting. Smallholding, craft, and seasonal eating have a genuine appeal to people who feel that modern life has lost something. This is not quite an argument, it is a sensibility which should not be dismissed. There are real questions about meaning and community in industrial modernity, but it tends to romanticize pre-industrial poverty selectively. Institutional capture has boosted the degrowth movement because much of its language now comes from NGOs, international bodies, and academic departments that have strong incentives to find crises requiring their management.” (06/25/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/degrowth-makes-us-all-poorer

Source: Real Clear Politics
by Larry Kudlow

“There’s vastly too much hand-wringing over President Trump’s diplomacy and potential dealmaking with Iran, and it’s coming from friends and foes alike. I think it has more to do with America’s crumbling political infrastructure, than it does regarding the merits of Mr. Trump’s efforts. First of all, the so-called memorandum of understanding is a nonbinding political document which simply outlines topics to be covered in the months ahead for some kind of final deal. Some people are taking parts of this MOU completely out of context for their own political gain. Let’s step back for a moment.” [editor’s note: Yes, let’s step back and watch Larry Kudlow try to explain away the loss of an illegal and entirely optional war – TLK] (06/25/26)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/06/25/on_iran_trump_is_neither_neocon_or_obama–and_it_is_working_154261.html