Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kimberlee Josephson
“There is a peculiar irony in modern American consumer culture: we celebrate abundance, low prices, and convenience — until we decide to sue the businesses that make those things possible. Somewhere along the way, buyer beware — a principle as old as markets themselves — has been replaced with the belief that disappointment equates with legal injury. Disputes over marketing messages and lawsuits about the labeling of menu items shows that some patrons are eager to become plaintiffs. Recent skirmishes over chicken are a case in point.” (03/15/26)
“Three Dead Men’s Hands press down across the map of Europe accelerating the 21st century continent towards a suicidal thermonuclear confrontation with Russia that will pull in and annihilate North America as well. The hands are those of Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill — the three Anglo-American architects of the catastrophic 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles. For 70 years the Versailles Treaty and its following agreements were rightly reviled across Europe and the world as the fiasco and disaster that led directly to the rise of Adolf Hitler and to the even greater conflagration of World War II.” (03/15/26)
“President Donald Trump said on Sunday his administration is talking to seven countries about helping to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, calling on them to help protect ships in the vital waterway that Tehran has mostly blocked to oil tanker traffic. With the conflict creating turmoil across the Middle East and shaking up global energy markets in its third week, Trump insisted that nations relying heavily on oil from the Gulf have a responsibility to protect the strait. ‘I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way from Florida to Washington. ‘It’s the place from which they get their energy.'” (03/16/26)
“Sure, we were laughing at him. But every reaction video or parody drove home the message that McDonald’s has a big new burger on the market, a message I’d never have heard if I hadn’t seen so many people making fun of the CEO. I would have eaten a Big Arch for dinner tonight — for research purposes, of course — if my column-writing duties hadn’t chained me to my desk. Such viral moments are marketing gold and at a bargain price — however much McDonald’s spent making that video, it probably only amounted to a fraction of the cost of producing a traditional ad, much less of blasting it into our consciousness in a prime time loop. Corporate America’s problem is that such moments are wildly unpredictable. If you want brand awareness on the cheap, you are dependent on the kindness (or more likely, unkindness) of strangers.” (03/15/26)
“or the first time since the pandemic began, a federal vaccine advisory body in the United States has acknowledged a major blind spot in the country’s vaccine safety system. A leaked report prepared for the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP) finds that many people with long-term illness after Covid-19 vaccination have gone largely unrecognised by the medical system meant to monitor vaccine safety. The document was written by the Covid-19 vaccine workgroup advising ACIP, chaired by MIT professor Retsef Levi.” (03/16/26)
“Some 200,000 immigrant truck drivers will begin to lose their commercial driver’s licenses as they expire under a new Trump administration rule that takes effect Monday. The Transportation Department’s rule will weigh on the beleaguered trucking industry, which is critical to transporting goods across America at a time when energy costs are surging due to the war in Iran. The rule bars immigrants who are asylum seekers, refugees or recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, from obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.” (03/16/26)
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Tommaso Biagi
“Every civilization — flawless, perfect in composition and intention — exists atop a quiet contradiction: We love freedom. We suffer domination. We justify it as ‘necessary authority,’ ‘the public order,’ ‘the social contract.’ We accept prisons ‘for safety,’ wage labour ‘for development,’ psychiatric coercion ‘for health.’ It’s the same ball game. A minority suffers, the majority lives ‘better.’ But better for whom? The one screaming in agony and the one smiling in comfort do not feel the sum. No one consciousness feels the totality. The ‘greater good’ is the fiction written by those for whom it works.” (03/15/26)
“The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for Marine Le Pen’s far-right the National Rally (RN), as well as for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, with both parties likely to increase their local presence ahead of next year’s French presidential race. The French local elections, which now go to a final round runoff on 22 March, are seen as a crucial test of the political temperature before next year’s presidential election. Emmanuel Macron’s two terms in office come to an end in spring 2027 and there is uncertainty about who will next lead the EU’s second-largest economy.” (03/15/26)
