Cato Podcast, 11/18/25
Source: Cato Institute
“The Shutdown That Solved Nothing.” (11/18/25)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/shutdown-solved-nothing
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
US Senate sends bill to release Epstein files to Trump
Source: Axios
“The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sending it to President Trump’s desk. Trump said Monday he would sign the bill, but the files still may not be released any time soon. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent Monday evening, just hours after it cleared the House via a nearly unanimous vote — and before the bill had even technically been sent over. In a stunning reversal, Trump this week supported the legislation after opposing the effort for months. But his recent directive of DOJ to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton, officials at JP Morgan Chase and others may cause the files to never see the light of day.” (11/18/25)
Trump Tariff Check Proposal: Bad Math, Not a “Dividend”
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“For the government to send out more than it’s raking in AND ‘begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT’ is mathematically impossible. … But more than the fiscal infeasibility of the proposal, I’m interested in Trump’s claim that those checks would constitute a ‘dividend.’ A dividend on what, precisely? Dividends are payments to shareholders in a business enterprise, distributed as a share of profits. As a ‘business enterprise,’ the last time the US government turned a “profit” by spending less than it received in tax payments was 2001. More importantly, none of us are shareholders in the US government.” (11/18/25)
NATO scrambles fighter jets as Russia launches combined attack on Ukraine
Source: CNN
“NATO scrambled fighter jets in Polish and Romanian airspace as Russia carried out a massive and deadly attack using ballistic and cruise missiles and hundreds of drones across Ukraine into Wednesday. Romania defense ministry claimed a Russian drone entered its airspace during the attack. It comes as Russia said it shot down four US-made ATACMS long-range missiles ‘deep within’ its territory yesterday, that Ukraine claimed it fired. … Many regions of Ukraine were left without power Wednesday after strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.” (11/19/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/europe/poland-fighter-jets-russia-ukraine-intl-hnk
Are the Benefits of AI Worth the Risk of “White-Collar Bloodbath?”
Source: The Daily Economy
by Saul Zimet
“In recent decades, and especially since the release of OpenAI’s large language model ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence use has rapidly spread into almost every industry. And as AI proliferates, so do fears that a wave of mass unemployment will follow. Concerns are widespread that AI will be deployed to accomplish an ever-greater share of the labor needed throughout the economy, leaving fewer and fewer jobs available for human workers. This fear led Dario Amodei, one of the world’s leading AI technologists, to sound the alarm earlier this year about an impending ‘white-collar bloodbath.’ The Anthropic CEO told Axios that one very possible scenario within the next one to five years is that, ‘Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10 percent a year, the budget is balanced — and 20 percent of people don’t have jobs.'” (11/18/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/are-the-benefits-of-ai-worth-the-risk-of-white-collar-bloodbath/
Labor Department: US jobless benefits rolls in mid-October were the highest since August
Source: Reuters
“The number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits stood at a two-month high in mid-October at the time when the Labor Department would have been conducting its survey of U.S. households for the monthly employment report that has been held up by the recently ended government shutdown. Continued claims for jobless benefits — those receiving benefits beyond an initial week of relief — rose to 1.957 million in the week ended October 18, updated figures posted to a Labor Department website showed on Tuesday. That was up 10,000 from the prior week and was the highest since early August. It was up notably from the 1.916 million level in the week ended September 13, the last week of data to have been reported prior to the start of the shutdown on October 1.” (11/18/25)
If Soldiers Become Cops, Americans Will Have Even Less Legal Redress Against Abusive Law Enforcement
Source: The UnPopulist
by Anthony Sanders
“In recent weeks, the Trump administration has ordered members of the military and the National Guard onto the streets of American cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. The purported reasons for these decisions have been to protect federal agents and federal property, but the threat of using the troops for general domestic law enforcement looms large, with President Trump repeatedly threatening to do just that. … Under American law, when members of the military violate citizens’ rights in law enforcement, it is much harder, if not impossible, for those victims to receive monetary compensation for the harms they suffer than it is when they suffer wrongs by state or local police — though it’s already hard enough in those cases. Indeed, using the military in domestic law is entirely incompatible with our nation’s current remedial legal architecture.” (11/18/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/if-soldiers-become-cops-americans
Trump hosts Saudi terror kingpin in White House meeting
Source: Washington Post
“Saudi [terror kingpin] Mohammed bin Salman arrived to a grand welcome from President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, greeted at the South Portico with an honor guard of black horses and herald trumpeters, a remarkable turnaround for the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia who had been branded a pariah in 2018 after the CIA concluded that he had approved the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The arrival, filled with more pomp than any world leader thus far in Trump’s second term, was a measure of the U.S. president’s affection for the Saudi [terror kingpin] and his rehabilitation following the killing. … The leaders are expected to sign deals ranging from weapons sales to agreements around artificial intelligence and critical minerals, according to White House officials.” (11/18/25)
Is Blackrock To Blame For The Housing Crisis?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Diyar Kasymov
“Is building more homes not enough? Recently, there have been more and more Gen-Z memes about boomers selling their overvalued houses to Blackrock instead of to young couples, and then the corporation rents the house to the couple for 2x the price. The housing crisis is not a false alarm. The median rent price went up 25 percent in just 6 years. This is a serious economic problem for America. Many young people are already being radicalized by this, as they are willing to elect socialist Zohran Mamdani — who called for abolition of private property once — as the mayor of New York City. But what can we do? Are rent controls now relevant, as globalization and financialization changed the rules of the game? Can European-style social-democrats like Mamdani, Bernie, and AOC control the markets elegantly enough to maximize supply?” (11/18/25)
This scam is why even Lincoln would have wanted to ditch the penny
Source: USA Today
by Joel Burgess
“For at least a century, American businesses have been using charm pricing to fool us into thinking that a $9.99 meal is much cheaper than $10. One study says the practice increases sales by 24%.” (11/18/25)