Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sergio Martínez
“Rent control is a subset of price controls. While its supposed goal is sympathetic—the desire to make housing affordable — it fails for a simple reason: it prevents prices from doing the job they exist to do.” (12/01/25)
Source: CBS News
“A long-lost painting by Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, which was hidden for more than four centuries, sold for $2.7 million at an auction Sunday in Versailles. The painting was recently found in a private townhouse in Paris. It depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was part of a French collection and was initially thought to be from one of the many Rubens workshops that existed at the time. The artwork was rarely valued at more than $11,500. … The painting was authenticated by German art historian Nils Buttner, known for his research on the master of the Flemish Baroque, Osenat said. Its provenance was certified through methods including X-ray imaging and pigment analysis, he added. Büttner explained before the auction that the master often painted crucifixions but rarely depicted ‘the crucified Christ as a dead body on the cross.'” (12/01/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rubens-painting-crucifixion-jesus-christ-sells-2-7-million/
Source: The Dispatch
“Let the Pandas Go Extinct | Interview: Sarah Isgur.” (12/01/25)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/let-the-pandas-go-extinct-interview-sarah-isgur/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Bret Swanson
“The experts have not been quick to assess, let alone apologize for, their performance during Covid. I took note, therefore, when two elite institutions that led the pandemic response co-hosted a retrospective event on Thursday, November 6. Johns Hopkins University is home to a world-renowned medical center and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The American Enterprise Institute is one of Washington, D.C.’s oldest and largest public policy think tanks. Both helped shape pandemic policy and perception from its earliest days. The two organizations have been collaborating for the past year, and they framed their first event on November 6 around the book In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, a critique of lockdowns written by two Princeton political scientists, Frances Lee and Stephen Macedo. Given their vocal insistence on maximal Covid impositions, Hopkins and AEI deserve credit for finally highlighting an opposing view.” (12/01/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/aei-and-johns-hopkins-attempt-a-covid-redo/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Stone Washington
“Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal regulatory agencies have their own court system for adjudicating disputes that businesses and citizens have with regulators. These agencies rely on special courts headed by administrative law judges (ALJs). One big problem with this system is that it operates independently of legitimate Article III courts. Another problem is that agency-housed tribunals have a strong tendency to favor regulators over the regulated. And yet another problem is how these judges (which I call ‘transitory’) get loaned out between agencies. Inter-agency borrowing of ALJs may not immediately stand out to the average citizen as problematic, but it raises serious questions about constitutionality, executive transparency, and bureaucratic oversight.” (12/01/25)
Source: New York Times
“Mayor Eric Adams announced a $38.9 million settlement with Starbucks on Monday over violations of New York City’s law guaranteeing fair working conditions, a resolution that city officials said was the largest worker protection settlement in the city’s history. The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found that Starbucks had violated the law more than half a million times since 2021 by failing to provide workers with stable schedules. More than 15,000 hourly workers are expected to receive restitution payments under the agreement. … Under the settlement, most employees who worked for Starbucks in an hourly position from July 2021 through July 2024 will receive $50 for each week they worked.” (12/01/25)
Source: EconTalk
“The Perfect Tuba: How Band, Grit, and Community Build a Better Life (with Sam Quinones).” (12/01/25)
Source: The American Conservative
by Liam Childers
“or years, Xi Jinping has encouraged the usage of many Maoist era slogans. One such slogan, ‘Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman,’ was a Cultural Revolution staple, used in song, speeches, and on posters praising the chairman. The slogan’s reemergence highlights a connection in how the state viewed itself then and now. The slogan also reflects Xi’s view of himself. As his years in office have gone on, this self-portrait has also been imposed on the party itself. Xi is presented as singular and irreplaceable. And yet, inevitably, he will need one day to be replaced.” (12/01/25)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Almut Rochowanski
“Before the two sides have even sat at the same table, the fate of the Donbas territories has emerged as the issue on which the sides are so far apart, and so unlikely to give in to the other, that it may doom peace talks before they even open. Ukraine considers conceding territory bitter, humiliating, and painful. Understandably so: giving up even more, after the country has lost so much and so many in defending itself, is intolerable. Russia seems grimly determined to gain the territory, if need be militarily, its recent progress on the battlefield making this threat all too credible. In this conundrum, the inhabitants of this sliver of the Donbas are offered only two futures, both of them devastating.” (12/01/25)
Source: ABC News
“Four Sydney men have been charged with criminal offenses over their alleged involvement in the distribution of child sexual abuse material linked to an international child sex abuse ring, police said Monday. A New South Wales state police task force identified the Sydney-based network while investigating the online distribution of encrypted child sexual abuse material involving ritualistic and satanic themes, Det. Supt. Jayne Doherty said. … Police also seized electronic devices allegedly containing thousands of videos depicting the abuse of children from babies to 12-year-olds. ‘Police will allege in court that this international group were engaging in conversations and the sharing of material which depicted child abuse and the torture of children involving symbols and rituals linked to Satanism and the occult,’ Doherty said.” (12/01/25)