“You probably didn’t compete with anyone when you bought coffee at Starbucks this morning. You didn’t enter a zero-sum struggle when you paid your phone bill, purchased groceries and gas, or caught a movie. Instead, you took part in a series of mutually beneficial, voluntary transactions. You gave someone money and they gave you something you wanted more than the money. Everyone walked away better off. In the words of Adam Smith, ‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.’ Competition, by contrast, rarely pops up in your day-to-day economic life.” (01/27/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Richard M Ebeling
“Tariffs and other trade barriers hampered the free flow of goods and services and investments across political boundary lines around the world after 1945. However, they almost seem mild and ‘enlightened’ compared to the current crop of protectionist weeds and their policy effects, particularly over the past year during Donald Trump’s second presidency.” (01/26/26)
“The US immigration agency whose officers have been involved in two [murders] in Minneapolis has said it is sending agents to help support American security operations during the Winter Olympics, which start in Italy on 6 February. Confirmation of the agency’s role came from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after reports prompted alarm and anger in Italy. ‘This is a militia that kills … of course they’re not welcome in Milan,” the city’s mayor, Beppe Sala, told Italian radio on Tuesday. An ICE spokesperson stressed that ‘all security operations remain under Italian authority.’ US embassy sources in Rome had already explained to Italian media that various federal agencies had worked at previous Games in the past, although it was not clear if the customs and enforcement agency had itself taken part.” [editor’s note: It was actually a related gang (“Border Patrol”), not ICE, responsible for the second recent Minneapolis murder – TLK] (01/27/26)
“The next time you wire money internationally, consider this: someone in Washington or Brussels can decide you don’t get to complete that transaction. Not because you broke any law. Not because a court found you guilty of anything. But because a U.S. Treasury Department or the European Council official added your name — or your bank’s name, or your customer’s name — to a list. That’s the power the U.S. government has wielded over the global financial system for two decades, and it’s the power that’s now driving the construction of a parallel financial architecture designed specifically to operate beyond American reach.” (01/27/26)
“With two U.S. citizens shot to death in the streets of Minneapolis in just over two weeks, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents abducting and detaining children as young as 2 years old, Americans might be forgiven for expecting a forceful response from the country’s nominal opposition party. Unfortunately, in the United States, that party is the Democrats. Their refusal to react proportionally to the threat of President Donald Trump and his army of secret police with ‘absolute immunity’ is only making things worse.” (01/26/26)
“Amazon announced Tuesday it is closing its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores and shifting resources toward Whole Foods Market expansion and faster grocery delivery. The move underscores Amazon’s ongoing effort to refine its grocery strategy — even as the business now generates more than $150 billion in annual sales. Amazon confirmed to Axios that 57 Amazon Fresh stores and 15 Amazon Go stores are closing, with most locations set to shutter Feb. 1. California stores will remain open longer due to state requirements. Amazon said it plans to convert some locations into Whole Foods Market stores, while also opening new stores and testing smaller formats.” (01/27/26)
