Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Philippe Lemieux
“Modern economic policies increasingly give an impression of unreality. Governments announce reassuring indicators while individuals experience something entirely different: persistent inflation, housing shortages, stagnating purchasing power. This gap is not merely an analytical error. It reveals a deeper problem: the state no longer reacts to economic reality as it is lived, but to a reconstructed version built from models, indicators, and abstract categories. The market, by contrast, does not rely on representation. It emerges directly from human action.” 904/20/26)
“Peru’s electoral authorities began reviewing thousands of contested ballots on Monday, stalling the count in the April 12 general election and delaying final results, as no clear presidential rival has emerged to face conservative frontrunner Keiko Fujimori in a June runoff. Roughly 6% of polling stations — representing more than one million votes — were challenged last week due to missing information or errors on tally sheets, according to Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE). Peru’s top electoral body, the National Jury of Elections (JNE), said it has started reviewing disputed polling stations in public hearings before adding them to the final tally, a process that could take weeks.” (04/20/26)
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Rep. Ilhan Omar claiming her net worth to be less than $100,000, after a report from last year showed that her and her husband held assets worth up to $30 million.” (04/20/26)
“The unprovoked joint U.S.-Israeli war launched against Iran on 28 February 2026 will manifestly change West Asia. When it ends, Arab despots, who allowed their countries to be used as platforms for aggression against Iran, will confront a new reality. The safety and stability they thought was theirs based on fealty to the United States and its Israeli proxy was shattered as Iranian missiles and drones were en route to destroy the U.S. military and intelligence installations they had allowed on their soil; a subordination they falsely believed would protect them. The Arab world is learning the hard way what the late-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in his cold logic, implied decades ago about American foreign policy: ‘The word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.'” (04/20/26)
“[Ha Joon] Chang positively revels in the power that the military dictatorship in South Korea had over who could produce what, how. It’s positively lipsmacking, that relish with which the stories of commands to produce this or that are described. As we point out, you cannot do that sort of thing in a free society. You can’t even do that sort of thing in a liberal society — because freedom and liberty do indeed mean not being commanded to produce this or that and in what manner.” (04/20/26)
“The Federal Aviation Administration grounded Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket after it shuttled its payload to the wrong orbit during its launch on Sunday, according to a report from the Orlando Sentinel. ‘The FAA is aware that Blue Origin New Glenn 3 experienced a mishap during the second-stage flight sequence following a successful launch,’ the FAA said in a statement obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. … Though the rocket’s reusable booster returned to its landing pad without issue, the rocket’s upper stage failed to deliver AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite. … Blue Origin confirmed that its second stage shut off its engines and was in a ‘coast phase’ after reaching an ‘off-nominal’ orbit, but it didn’t provide any other details about what went wrong or when it will return to Earth.” (04/20/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by John C Goodman & Pete Sessions
“Health economics tells us there are two ways to insure for anything: self-insurance (with individuals taking the risks and saving to pay for them) and third-party insurance (in which an insurance company, an employer or the government bears the risk). Self-insurance makes sense for risks over which we have more personal control. For example, just about every time you have needed a Band-Aid, it was probably for an event you could have easily avoided. The problem is that most people are not accustomed to self-insuring for medical expenses. The median household has only $8,000 in a bank account, and millions of families are living paycheck to paycheck. The solution to that problem is a Health Savings Account.” (04/20/26)
“FBI Director Kash Patel on Monday morning filed a lawsuit seeking $250 million in damages from The Atlantic magazine for what he claims is a defamatory article that alleges he abuses alcohol. Patel over the weekend had vowed to sue The Atlantic for the article published on Friday, which was carried the headline ‘Kash Patel’s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job.’ ‘The FBI director has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences,’ the article’s subhed says. Patel’s suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. … The Atlantic, in a statement to CNBC, said, ‘We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit.'” (04/20/26)
