Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: The Dispatch
by Scott Lincicome

“The left and right say the metric is meaningless — for different reasons — but it is a reliable indicator of well-being and growth.” (05/14/26)

https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-markets/gdp-reliable-indicator-well-being/

Source: Cato Institute
by Adam Omary and Jeffrey A Singer

“The sharp increase in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses — nearly doubling among American children between 1997 and 2022, and more than tripling among adults from 2012 to 2023 — has been chalked up to better screening, increased awareness, and the corrosive effects of smartphones and social media on developing brains. None of these factors holds up well under scrutiny. The diagnostic category itself has been steadily widened by the institutions that define it and the financial structure that rewards every participant for applying the ADHD label.” (05/13/26)

https://www.cato.org/commentary/perfect-storm-adhd-overdiagnosis

Source: UnHerd
by Yanis Varoufakis

“When the bombs began to rain down on Iran, I predicted Donald Trump’s Waterloo. Watching his MAGA coalition, a noxious brew of working-class resentment and tax cuts for billionaires, descend into a civil class war, I paraphrased Churchill on the Battle of El Alamein: in his second term, before Iran, Trump had never faced a serious defeat; after Iran, he will not taste another victory. While I stand by my prediction, a new observation must be grafted upon it: the Iran war has awarded Trump’s plutocratic circle a spectacularly enriching victory. In a republic that has long since mutated into an oligarchy, albeit one with periodic elections, the plutocrats’ expanding fortunes matter disproportionately.” (05/13/26)

https://archive.is/eNV9U

Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye

“Critics are right that a digital dollar could be another surveillance tool, but the Federal Reserve likely needs Congress to authorize it.” (05/13/26)

https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/a-central-bank-digital-currency-isnt

Source: The Findings Substack
by Lauren Rodriguez

“December 19th, 2026 … that was the day that I dropped my husband at a federal prison camp in West Virginia and forced myself to drive away. That moment, far more than the FBI raid on our home, was my experience of devastation. We had been living a quiet life, my husband a developer and me a housewife with family responsibilities. Driving away and leaving him behind meant that our life was not just threatened, but torn irreparably apart. It was real and it had happened. The Federal agents screaming at us was an early morning shock, the laser sights on our chests, the drones flying through our front door … it was almost like being in a movie. Driving away from the prison, on the other hand, tore open a gulf and dismembered every aspect of our lives.” (05/13/26)

https://thefindings.substack.com/p/laser-sights-on-our-chests-wasnt