“The United States on Wednesday removed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the Palestinian territories who has harshly criticised Israel, following a court order. A notice on the Treasury Department’s website showed that it had removed a sanctions designation on Albanese that had blacklisted her globally, making it impossible for her to use major credit cards or carry out bank transactions. Albanese, who is Italian, has been a relentless critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in her role as the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.” (05/20/26)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“One way or another, the American taxpayers always get screwed by politicians eager to spend our hard-earned dollars on programs and projects that do little to improve our lives, safeguard our freedoms, or secure our future. Donald Trump — the billionaire trust-fund baby/reality TV showman who transformed himself into a populist champion of working-class Americans — has proven to be no different, and in many ways worse, than the politicians who came before him. Trump has given new meaning to government corruption, graft, grift, profiteering, self-dealing and pay-to-play politics.” (05/20/26)
“Price controls are one of the most studied policy interventions in economics, and the near-universal verdict among economists is that they backfire. The core problem is that prices are signals, not villains. Prices convey information about scarcity, cost of production, and consumer demand. When a government artificially suppresses a price below the market-clearing level, it does not eliminate the underlying cost pressures; it merely hides them while creating new distortions. The basic supply-and-demand mechanism explains clearly why shortages result. A price cap set below the market price simultaneously increases demand because more consumers want the now-cheaper product, and decreases supply; producers and retailers earn less, so they reduce output, stock less, or exit the market entirely.” (05/20/26)
“One of the best parts of last year’s reconciliation bill was the introduction of an accountability rule called the Do No Harm rule that will cut off student loans for programs where students earn too little after graduation. The bar is very low. For undergraduate programs, graduates will only need to earn more than a comparable high school graduate who did not attend college, and for graduate programs, students need to earn more than those with a bachelor’s degree. Programs that fail to meet this benchmark for two out of three years would lose access to the federal student loan programs. Nevertheless, there are many programs that do not clear this very low bar.” (05/20/26)
“Australian populist party Pauline Hanson’s One Nation said it wanted to create a Norway-style sovereign wealth fund and for the government to take a share of offshore production licences in federal waters as it unveiled its energy policy at the Australian Energy Producers conference in Adelaide on Thursday. One Nation has surged in popularity this year, winning its first House of Representatives seat, and has backing from Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart, who recently donated a plane and hosted dinners for the party. … Her plan would see the federal government take a 30% stake in offshore licences, share development and decommissioning costs, and retain part of production for domestic use, including fertiliser and fuels.” (05/21/26)
“I argue that the United States has had three systems of federal administrative procedure: a two-track system lasting from the Founding to the Gilded Age, a second system from the late 1800s to the 1960s that would be codified in the APA, and the third system that was constructed beginning in the 1960s and that we still live in today. This piece covers the first two of these systems: the development of federal administrative procedure from the Founding to the enactment of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946.” (05/20/26)
“It is not just us peons (middle or lower class, out of government, etc.) that should listen to the advice on whom to trust. Even the most powerful and secure of human rulers, princes, leaders, etc. need to remember that they cannot trust other rulers, etc. Even those less powerful than they are. We should remember that far more kings, presidents, etc. have been betrayed and overthrown by other powerful people than ever deposed by true grassroots actions.” (05/20/26)
