“In theory, tariffs should shift jobs to the protected industries. If these tariffs protect manufacturing, why aren’t jobs shifting there? The argument for tariffs to protect manufacturing relies on an assumption that the imports are of final goods and that the protected country has tariff-free access to intermediate goods (the goods used in manufacturing). In 21st-century America, that assumption doesn’t hold.” (12/16/25)
“Discussions of the war in Gaza tend to focus on what’s visible. The instinct is understandable: Over two years of brutal conflict, the Israel Defense Forces have all but destroyed the diminutive strip on the Mediterranean coast, with the scale of the carnage illustrated by images of emaciated children, shrapnel-ridden bodies, and flattened buildings. But underlying all of this destruction is a hidden force — a carefully constructed infrastructure of Israeli surveillance that powers the war effort and keeps tabs on the smallest facets of Palestinians’ lives.” (12/16/25)
“It’s my weekly therapy session with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos where we discuss current events and how to keep one’s sanity in a world turned upside down. Come and bask in the normalcy that we once took for granted.” (12/16/25)
“For more than half a century, Americans have been urged to shy away from saturated fats, found mainly in animal products. We have been told to cook with canola oil instead of butter, select skim instead of whole milk, and to fill our plates with pasta instead of steak. Paradoxically, decades of adherence to this advice has coincided with rising levels of chronic disease. As people cut more saturated fat from their diets, the nation grew heavier and sicker — not healthier. Put plainly, the war on saturated fat, rooted in the hypothesis that it causes heart disease, has never been based on sound science. In fact, a large and growing body of evidence reveals that saturated fats aren’t a menace but a key part of a healthy diet. And they should be recognized as such in national nutrition policy.” (12/16/25)
“Trump has recently gone berserk with his interferences of international trade for a change. How should Canada react? There are four and only four realistic options (I rule out physically attacking the US over this imbecilic action of their government). One, do nothing, stand pat, ignore this latest moronic display of economic ignorance. Two, raise our tariff levels against the US; Trump threatens that if we do so, he will reciprocate, and then we will be off to the races with a real trade war. Three, lower the barriers to trade with the US that we have previously enacted. Four, eliminate them entirely.” (12/16/25)
“US job growth remained sluggish in November and the unemployment rate rose to a four-year-high, pointing to a continued cooling in the labour market after a weak October. Nonfarm payrolls increased 64,000 in November after declining 105,000 in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The unemployment rate was 4.6 per cent last month, up from 4.4 per cent in September. The BLS had to forgo publishing an October jobless rate because it was unable to retroactively collect that data following the government shutdown. … The advance in November payrolls was driven by health care and social assistance as well as construction. Private payrolls increased by 69,000 in November after adding 52,000 jobs the prior month. Employment fell in transportation and warehousing as well as leisure and hospitality.” (12/16/25)
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale
“The Trump administration and its acolytes argue that permitting 50 different state governments to create wildly differing rules for AI will slow the development of research and allow liberal states to create ‘woke’ onramps for the nascent technology. ‘There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,’ wrote Trump in a post shared to his Truth Social on Monday. ‘I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something.’ … Among the chief concerns for states’ rights advocates is a loss of flexibility when it comes to innovation and policy-making. Local variation allows states the ability to test different regulatory approaches before others follow, permitting state governments the opportunity to tailor AI systems to differing demographics, economies, and values.” (12/16/25)
“Lynn’s central argument rests on a fundamental confusion between what economists refer to as the ‘legal incidence’ and the ‘economic incidence’ of a tax. Legally, because tariffs are a tax on imports, it is the US importers who must write the check to Customs and Border Protection. But this says nothing about who actually pays the tariff. For example, when landlords’ property taxes go up, who pays? The landlord will obviously write the check to the county assessor, but unless Lynn thinks that landlords are running charities, that cost gets passed on to tenants in the form of higher rent, less frequent maintenance, or fewer included benefits (utilities or access to designated parking, for example). The legal incidence falls on the landlord, but the economic incidence falls disproportionately on renters, i.e., young Americans already besieged by high housing costs. Tariffs work the same way.” (12/16/25)
“Despite concessions from the European Commission, including a safeguard clause that is due to be adopted by the European Parliament on December 16, Paris has called for a ‘postponement’ of the free trade agreement between the EU and countries in the South American trade bloc. … The issue of a free trade agreement with countries in the Mercosur bloc has always been highly sensitive in France, where part of the farming sector is categorically opposed to the deal, as well as nearly the entire political spectrum. France’s industrial sector, which might benefit from the export opportunities the deal would entail, has supported it, but only in a hushed way. Against this backdrop, an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis among France’s livestock, uncertainty about the 2026 state budget, and the upcoming local elections, set for March 2026, have convinced the president to hit the brakes.” (12/16/25)
