Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Today I turn 55. While my kids love to mock my age, the truth is that I feel young. Real young. Every day, my top priority is not fulfilling my duties or conforming to social expectations, but having fun. Biologists have an adjective for my state of being: neoteny. We neotenous creatures retain our juvenile traits long into adulthood.” (04/08/26)
Source: The Atlantic
“What It Means to Be American.” (04/08/26)
Source: EconLog
by Jacob T Levy
“Over hundreds of pages, Smith patiently shows why both peace and a tolerable administration of justice are historically rare, and continually fragile. To the extent that some society or other happens to have them, it seems to be neither the natural course of things nor the result of wise and judicious statesmanship but rather barely better than luck. Smith was not an esoteric writer, but he was a patient one. He laid out arguments and counterarguments at narrative length and expected readers to follow along with him.” (04/08/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Kym Robinson
“Richard Nixon employed a ‘madman theory’ while he negotiated with the North Vietnamese and Soviets. Nixon wanted the leaders of those countries to think that he was unpredictable, volatile and willing to risk nuclear destruction. In turn this caused the Vietnamese and Soviet leaders to tread with reason and use cool minded methods. It forced them to make concessions and placate the irrational leader of the ‘free world.’ The theory is based on the premise that an irrational leader is more dangerous than a rational one. … It is unlikely the current US president has the calculation and awareness for such methods, let alone the understanding of history.” (04/08/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/anti-war-blog-madman-theory/
Source: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus
by David Beckworth
“From supply-driven reserves to demand-driven liquidity.” (04/08/26)
https://macroeconomicpolicynexus.substack.com/p/the-feds-overton-window-is-shifting
Source: The Verge
“Unionized staff at ProPublica, one of the country’s leading nonprofit newsrooms, are walking off the job for 24 hours beginning Wednesday and asking the public to honor a digital picket line. The roughly 150 members of the ProPublica Guild are in the midst of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement after unionizing in 2023. The union says key issues are still in contention, including protections around the use of AI, ‘just cause’ provisions around disciplining or firing an employee, layoff protections, and wages. … The unit voted in March to authorize a strike if a deal was not reached with ProPublica management.” (04/08/26)
https://www.theverge.com/news/908401/propublica-union-strike-negotiations-ai-layoffs
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump Knows His Election Order is Illegal. That’s the Point! (w/ Andrew Weissmann).” (04/08/26)
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“In the town of Calvin, the married couple Candi Mentink and Todd Collard conceived an entrepreneurial idea that their state’s law says is forbidden. They sell inexpensive caskets wrapped in vinyl graphic designs depicting hunting, fishing, religious motifs, sports teams’ logos, perhaps even the likeness of famous Oklahomans. Imagine whiling away eternity in a Mickey Mantle casket. Heavenly. Thanks to the internet, they can sell caskets to people in Orlando or Ottawa or Oslo or Okinawa. But not Oklahoma, as they learned when the law, in its majesty, pounced on their company’s booth at the state fair.” (04/08/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Sarah Hamid
“When people remember the 2011 uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), they picture crowded squares, raised phones, and the feeling that the internet had finally shifted the balance of power toward ordinary people. But the past decade and a half is also a story about how governments, companies, and platforms turned those same tools into the backbone of a powerful state surveillance apparatus. For activists, journalists, and everyday users, that means now living with a constant threat: the phone in your pocket, the platforms you organize on, and the systems you rely on for safety and connection can be weaponized at the flip of a switch.” (04/08/26)
Source: New York Times
“A Cease-Fire in Iran.” (04/08/26)