“The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens. The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state’s outsize role in the national economy.” (07/11/25)
“Back in the ‘good old days’ of subprime mortgage-mania, the business of making loans and securitizing them took on the appearance of the proverbial tail wagging the dog. The participants in the business of making the loans, securitizing them, selling them and managing them could not care less who was actually getting the loan. There seemed to be an endless supply of global capital that ‘needed’ to be put to work in subprime. Wall Street was making billions and the only thing that mattered was creating a loan, no matter how ridiculous, to feed the subprime structured-product market. We know how all that turned out. I get the strong feeling this is what has been happening in the Private Market (Private Equity and Private Credit) investment sector.” (07/11/25)
“David Gergen, who worked for four presidents, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, before becoming an academic and political TV pundit, has died. He was 83. Gergen died in a retirement home in Massachusetts on July 10, his son said, according to several outlets. The Washington, D.C., veteran had been suffering from Lewy body dementia, his son said.” (07/11/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“In late 2021, Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, unveiled the following year’s budget with great fanfare. The largest in Spanish history, it totaled almost €200 billion, €27 billion of which came from a new European financing scheme called NextGenerationEU (NGEU). Supposedly designed to help member states recover from the ruinous effects of lockdown, the NGEU’s main instrument is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), through which a total of €650 billion was borrowed on global markets and distributed amongst the EU’s 27 member states. Spain’s share was €163 billion — an amount finance minister María Jesús Montero claimed would be enough to ensure that the ‘recovery will reach everyone.’ Almost four years later, the Spanish economy is booming, but not due to the effective deployment of RRF funds.” (07/12/25)
“Colombian authorities said Friday they captured an alleged leader of the Italian ‘ndrangheta mafia in Latin America who is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments and managing illegal trafficking routes to Europe. Police identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, also known as ‘Peppe,’ an Italian who was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries. He was apprehended on the street in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, during a coordinated operation between Colombian, Italian and British authorities, as well as Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, according to an official report.” (07/12/25)
“When Donald Trump finally gets around to erecting his proposed $34 million National Garden of American Heroes, he should reserve a tall plinth for a bronze likeness of George Washington Plunkitt. … Plunkitt might not be the equal of Thomas Jefferson or Ray Charles, two additional proposed honorees, and Trump might never have heard of him. But Plunkitt’s example has served Trump throughout his career. … Plunkitt analyzed the two ways officeholders could use their positions to garner personal wealth. They could rob directly from the public coffers, which Plunkitt conceded was wrong, calling it ‘dishonest graft.’ Or they could operate in a grayer, only slightly more ethical zone, and sell and trade political influence like a commodity. This, Plunkitt argued, was right and just, and he celebrated it as ‘honest graft.'” (07/11/25)
“Much of the Upper Midwest on Saturday was dealing with swaths of unhealthy air because of drifting smoke from Canadian wildfires, covering the northern region of the U.S. at a time when people want to be enjoying lakes, trails and the great outdoors. Most of Minnesota and parts of Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin were ranked ‘unhealthy’ for air quality on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency map. Part of North Dakota that is home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and other tourist attractions was ranked ‘very unhealthy,’ some of the worst air quality in the nation.” (07/12/25)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Michael Galant & Eleonora Piergallini
“On June 30, President Trump signed an executive order terminating the majority of U.S. sanctions on Syria. The move, which would have been unthinkable mere months ago, fulfilled a promise he made at an investment forum in Riyadh in May. ‘The sanctions were brutal and crippling,’ he had declared to an audience of primarily Saudi businessmen. Lifting them, he said, will ‘give Syria a chance at greatness.’ The significance of this statement lies not solely in the relief that it will bring to the Syrian people. His remarks revealed an implicit but rarely admitted truth: sanctions — often presented as a peaceful alternative to war — have been harming the Syrian people all along.” (07/11/25)
