Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes

“In 1978, a tiny, dirt-poor Atlantic island of 250,000 souls decided to do the one thing Brussels now treats as heresy … It cut its corporate tax rate to the bone and built Europe’s last genuine special economic zone. And now, 47 years and countless European Union investigations later, that same island shows the opposite of decline: its GDP has quadrupled since 1995; it has narrowed the gap with the European average by more than 20 percentage points; unemployment in recent years has fallen below mainland levels; and its 5% corporate tax regime has been legally renewed until 2033. No oil. No tech miracle. No massive subsidies. Just lower taxes and the freedom to keep the money you earn. This is the story Europe’s central planners don’t want you to hear.” (12/10/25)

https://fee.org/articles/madeira-europes-forgotten-miracle/

Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein

“Is it just the long lines that make trips to the post office or DMV so unpleasant? The reality goes deeper. In many states, a significant number of government employees act as though they’re doing you a favor by helping you. These workers seem to find no meaning in their work, and they stubbornly refuse to allow any joy into their workday. Passion for our work develops from our commitment to being good at our job. Those who would rather be idle because they feel no passion are deluded about cause and effect. In contrast to experiences at government offices, market transactions are shaped by mutual benefit — each participant values what they receive more than what they give. This interdependence naturally fosters a sense of gratitude.” (12/10/25)

https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/the-gratitude-prescription-lessons

Source: Fox News
by Howard Husock

“The billion-dollar pandemic-era social service billing fraud perpetuated mainly by Somali immigrants in Minneapolis is shocking in its scale. That Minnesota public officials would have turned a blind eye to one of the largest state welfare scandals in American history, for fear of being viewed as racist, should surprise no one. For years, the state has wrongly convinced itself that its Black residents suffer from a deeply racist past. Progressives made a key error, confusing the situation of new immigrants who happen to be Black Africans with those who are the descendants of American slaves. But they were sure they had to correct the past with dramatic policy changes. This under-appreciated story began with what seemed to be an alarming 2019 investigation by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that labeled Minnesota ‘one of the most racially inequitable states’ — a conclusion based on a poverty rate four times higher for Blacks than Whites.” (12/10/25)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/how-misreading-somali-poverty-led-minnesota-its-largest-welfare-scandal

Source: CounterPunch
by Laura Flanders

“Doxing, swatting, bogus FBI calls, stalkers live-streaming outside their homes — it used to be marginal maniacs who saw journalists as targets to be neutralized. Now it’s the President. A government that pardons violent insurrectionists, guts research on far‑right terror, and redirects agents from tracking neo‑Nazis to hunting immigrants is turning its full weight on the people who dare to report any of it.” (12/10/25)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/10/from-doxxing-to-dot-gov/

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Sophia Goodfriend

“Since mid-October, some 200 U.S. military personnel have been working out of a sprawling warehouse in southern Israel, around 20 kilometers from the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. The Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) was ostensibly set up to facilitate the implementation of President Donald Trump’s 20-point ‘peace plan’ — whose stated aims are to ‘disarm Hamas,’ ‘rebuild Gaza,’ and lay the groundwork for ‘Palestinian self-determination and statehood’ — which last week received the endorsement of the UN Security Council. Yet while no Palestinian bodies have been involved in the conversations surrounding Gaza’s future, at least two private U.S. surveillance firms have found their way into the White House’s post-war designs for the Strip.” (12/10/25)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/surveillance-gaza/