Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Walter Block
“Under Mamdani’s proposal, [New York City’s] minimum wage would improve to $20 per hour in 2027, $23.50 in 2028, $27 in 2029 and $30 in 2030. This is almost double the present minimum wage currently prevailing in the Big Apple, at $16.50. … [T]he minimum wage law is not a floor, raising wages above the level stipulated by the enactment. Rather, it is a barrier over which one has to jump in order to get a job in the first place, and then to retain it.” (11/23/25)
“A couple hours before I began writing this column, I drove from Irvine up the 405 to the VA Long Beach Healthcare System for a routine appointment. At the hospital I saw two veterans in their 40s in wheelchairs. Although it’s possible they suffered civilian accidents, more likely their legs were blown off by IEDs — improvised explosive devices — in the Iraq War two decades ago. I backed President Donald Trump in three elections because I hoped he would end such senseless ‘regime-change wars,’ as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called them. He promised to be a ‘peace president.’ Instead, recently he perpetrated the nonjudicial killings of 76 ‘narco-terrorists,’ who could just be fishermen given the lack of actual information, in violation of international law. … Worse is his inability to end the Ukraine War ‘in 24 hours,’ as he promised. … Then there’s the Middle East.” (11/23/25)
“European leaders are discussing a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine after the White House made major ‘revisions and clarifications’ to its 28-point peace plan. However, major issues remain unresolved, Finland’s president Alexander Stubb said on Monday. Ukraine reiterated its red lines including formal recognition of occupied territories, demands on limits to Ukraine’s military capacities and restrictions on future alliances, Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of Ukraine’s parliament said on Monday. … Europe demanded changes proposing that Ukraine be granted a larger military than under the US plan and that talks on land swaps should start from the frontline rather than a pre-determined view of which areas should be considered Russian.” (11/24/25)
“What are a few deportation threats among friends? President Donald Trump has called Zohran Mamdani a ‘100% Communist lunatic’ who ‘needs to be DEPORTED.’ Mamdani called the president a ‘despot,’ promising to ‘Trump-proof’ New York. Yet they couldn’t have been chummier in their Oval Office meeting on Friday. What’s happening here? Trump loves populists and winners, and Mamdani is both. … This surreal scene is no bad thing for voters who have been told that the other side is the mortal enemy, though they might wonder how sincere each side was in their election insults. In reality, Mamdani and Trump have some shared interests, and it’s not just about building more apartments and tackling inflation. Both men are looking to seize more executive power, deepen the reach of the state into people’s everyday lives and bring government to bear on businesses and entrepreneurs who won’t fall in line.” (11/21/25)
“A close ally of Bosnia’s Serb Republic separatist leader Milorad Dodik won a snap presidential election in a tight race with opposition candidate, the election commission said on Sunday, citing preliminary results. ‘According to preliminary, unofficial and incomplete results, Sinisa Karan won 50.89% of the votes,’ Jovan Kalaba, the commission’s president, said at a news conference. Kalaba said that opposition candidate Branko Blanusa of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) won 47.81% of the votes. Turnout was low at 35.78%, compared with 53% during a general vote in 2022, he said. … Pro-Russian separatist Dodik was convicted in February of defying the constitutional court and an international peace envoy, leading to Bosnia’s biggest political crisis since the end of its devastating war 30 years ago. He repeatedly rejected the verdict but in October unexpectedly appointed a loyal ally as his temporary replacement and annulled a series of separatist laws previously adopted in parliament.” (11/24/25)
“Taiwan is not now, and never has been, part of the People’s Republic of China. … But whenever any politician on the world stage publicly mentions, or even alludes to, that fact, Chinese politicians rattle their sabers militarily while threatening, ‘diplomatically,’ to throw themselves on the floor and hold their breath until they turn blue. To placate Beijing, western regimes have generally adopted policies of ‘strategic ambiguity.’ They conduct friendly relations with Taiwan while not ‘recognizing’ its status as independent, and provide Taiwan with military assistance of various kinds while very carefully NOT openly saying they’d help it defend itself against invasion. ‘Strategic ambiguity’ is the worst of two worlds when it comes to foreign policy.” (11/23/25)
“Thanksgiving is forecast to be colder and with more snow than usual across large swathes of the U.S., threatening to snarl what the AAA is projecting to be record holiday traffic. The National Weather Service warns the ‘polar vortex,’ an area of cold air around the Arctic, could expand southwards and combine with two other factors to bring ‘cooler than normal temperatures’ from Seattle to Dallas and across to Chicago this Thanksgiving week. … nearly 82 million Americans are expected to embark on Thanksgiving holiday road trips and the TSA prepares to screen an estimated 17.8 million air travelers from this Tuesday.” (11/24/25)
“The unity that once held the Democratic Party together has given way to ideological meandering, oscillating between ‘woke’ moralistic left-wing populism and technocratic managerialism. These two impulses now define its fractured identity: the former emerging from the Occupy movement and the momentum of Bernie Sanders'[s] presidential campaigns, the latter from the evolution of the Clinton-era ‘New Democrat’ consensus. The 2025 elections crystallized the divide through two major victories — socialist outsider Zohran Mamdani in New York City and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who’s more in line with the neoliberal wing. Each has been called the party’s ‘future,’ though their wins more clearly reveal how ideologically hollow the party’s core has become.” (11/23/25)
“Israel on Sunday struck Lebanon’s capital for the first time since June, saying it killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff Haytham Tabtabai and warning the Iran-backed militant group not to rearm and rebuild a year after their latest war. The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed five people and wounded 25 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. Hezbollah confirmed Tabtabai’s death. … Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun in a statement condemned the strike and accused Israel of refusing to implement its end of the ceasefire agreement.” (11/23/25)
