“[T]he negative impacts of Trump’s global tariffs are already being felt by American businesses and consumers. The Budget Lab at Yale University projects the net impact will be a slowing of the U.S. GDP for years to come and net losses to the average household of about $1,300. In just the first few months of the Trump presidency, Californians coughed up over $11 billion in tariff payments as a result of Trump’s decrees. That’s real money taken out of the hands of California businesses and consumers. So it struck me as odd, the other day, when I saw GOP Rep. Young Kim post on X, ‘California’s gotten too expensive for small businesses to take off. I fought to make President Trump’s pro-growth tax cuts permanent — so local job creators can keep more of what they earn.'” (11/20/25)
“Some readers will come to this series with the prior belief that political entrepreneurship has a negative impact on freedom and flourishing. Those of us who believe that people tend to flourish most fully when governments refrain from interfering with their lives may hold that belief. We certainly have good reasons to be skeptical about the impact of political entrepreneurs on human flourishing. Nevertheless, if we are serious about promoting libertarian ideals, we cannot avoid considering the possibility that political entrepreneurship might have a role to play in getting us from where we are now – or where we seem to be heading – to a political and legal order that is more conducive to human flourishing.” (11/20/25)
“I noted last week that the Biden era vibecession — people feeling bad about an economy that looked good by standard measures — has persisted under Trump. In fact, public perceptions of the economy appear to be plumbing new depths. Honestly, I’m surprised. One factor in poor economic sentiment under Biden was partisanship. People’s reported perception of the economy is strongly affected by whether their preferred party is in power …. This is true for both parties, but historically Republicans have tended to cheer harder and boo louder than Democrats. So other things equal we would have expected average sentiment to improve under Trump II. Now, things aren’t equal. Objectively, the economy is worse in important ways than it was a year ago. Still, the extent of the plunge in perceptions is remarkable.” (11/20/25)
“Federal prosecutors moved Thursday to dismiss charges against a woman who was shot by a Border Patrol agent last month during the federal immigration crackdown in the Chicago area. Hours before a status hearing in the case, prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges against Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ruiz, 21, marking a dramatic reversal in one of the most closely watched cases tied to the crackdown in the country’s third-largest city. The Department of Homeland Security has characterized people who have protested ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ as violent rioters and vowed to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. But of the more than two dozen people arrested for impeding or assaulting federal officers or other protest-related offenses, none have gone to trial and charges have been dropped against at least nine of them.” (11/20/25)
“Political views are often misleadingly discussed as though they span a single left/right spectrum. I want to suggest that a similar mistake gets made when thinking about economic systems and policies. As a corrective, consider that economic systems can be understood along more than one axis or spectrum – and these different axes are often conflated with each other. Here I propose four axes for evaluating a country’s economic system. Each axis should be thought of as a sliding scale, rather than a binary switch. It’s not a matter of if a country is entirely on this or that side, it’s a question of what side the balance tends toward.” (11/20/25)
Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, podcaster and influencer Candace Owens has floated a succession of conspiracy theories implicating everyone in the murder, from the Israeli government to Kirk’s own organisation, Turning Point USA. This week, her speculation reached its apogee when she suggested that Donald Trump himself was involved. In a recent broadcast, Owens linked the commemorations of Kirk’s death to a supposed plot, remarking that ‘when they give you a holiday and a boulevard … they definitely killed you.’ Owens’[s] wild theorising isn’t an anomaly; it’s part of something older and darker. There’s a distinctly medieval quality to much of the conspiratorial right—a world animated by unseen cabals, moral corruption, and divine punishment disguised as politics.” (11/20/25)
“Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday found the country’s attorney general guilty of leaking confidential information about the boyfriend of a leading conservative politician and government rival. The court banned Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz from his post for two years. The decision is a blow to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who defended García Ortiz during the monthslong investigation and court case. García Ortiz was accused of having leaked an email to journalists with personal information about Alberto González Amador, when the businessman was under investigation for alleged tax fraud. That tax inquiry remains open.” (11/20/25)
