Show-Me Institute Podcast, 07/14/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“A U.S. Attorney’s Perspective on Criminal Justice Reform with Thomas C. Albus.” (07/14/26)
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
Pikachu’s Pokémon Price Information
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Kevin Van Elswyk
“Pikachu is a yellow mouse and the internationally-recognized mascot of the Pokémon Franchise. Pokémon’s beginning was a game and disconnected (‘Pocket Monsters’) playing cards decades ago. Over time, it has spawned a TV series, a monopoly game, and a worldwide card collection fever. The tangible cards are now an ersatz currency to reward chore completion, trade for other cards, cash, and bitcoin. Bartering lives, and the card collection fever illustrates Austrian economics.” (07/14/26)
https://mises.org/power-market/pikachus-pokemon-price-information
Democrats’ affordability scam collapses in states they actually run
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek
“Democrats are lying to voters, claiming to be the party that can deliver ‘affordability.’ Nothing could be farther from the truth. … Democrat-run cities and states are, with few exceptions, the most expensive in the nation. The reasons include pro-labor rules that drive up wages and costs, regulatory overreach that creates hurdles and delays, energy policies that inflate electricity and gasoline bills, and reckless spending, which leads to high taxes. High taxes, another Democrat specialty, inflate the price of everything as they are passed along to the consumer.” (07/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-democrats-affordability-scam-collapses-states-they-run
Poll: Confidence in higher education slips after brief recovery
Source: Fox News
“Public confidence in American higher education has taken a fresh hit, erasing a brief period of recovery, as concerns over campus politics and financial value intensify, according to a new Gallup poll obtained by Fox News Digital. The latest data reveals that just 38% of U.S. adults maintain a ‘great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in higher education. The figure represents a noticeable drop from last year, when trust in the sector experienced a modest uptick to 42%. … The current 38% confidence mark underscores a steep, long-term decline from 2015, when 57% of Americans expressed solid trust in higher education. Significant drops followed in 2018 and 2023.” (07/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/confidence-higher-education-slips-brief-recovery-gallup-poll-finds
Capital Record, episode 311
Source: National Review
“That Big, Bad, Evil GDP Thing.” (07/14/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/that-big-bad-evil-gdp-thing/
On the Manchester model
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Miles Saltiel
“Burnham’s Manchester model is a game of bait and switch. It uses funds obtained from the Public Works Loan Board, an arm of the Treasury, which explicitly declines to look at the uses to which its money is put. Manchester loans these funds on to local projects, also free of arm’s-length scrutiny, in effect using the national credit rating for local projects. This brings to mind other public borrowers who believed that big Daddy would keep them out of trouble (bankers call malarkey of this kind ‘moral hazard’) leading to, eg, Argentine defaults, where provincial profligacy hides behind central guarantees. The Manchester model is not yet a big thing in the UK, but Burnham gives the impression that he believes he’s found the secret sauce.” (07/14/26)
US regime moves $288 million in stolen bitcoin, ether to Coinbase Prime
Source: CoinDesk
“The U.S. government just staged its [stolen] crypto for an exchange, and it took an extra hop to get there. Wallets tied to the government moved about $288 million in [stolen] bitcoin and ether onto Coinbase Prime over roughly half a day on Monday, blockchain data from Arkham shows. The ether went direct, while the bitcoin took a detour through intermediary wallets first. The movements are despite an executive order in March 2025 by President Donald Trump, which designated [stolen] bitcoin for the country’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and said it should not be sold.” (07/14/26)
The Good Fight, 07/14/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“John Harpham on the Intellectual Origins of American Slavery.” (07/14/26)
Cory Doctorow Is Making Peace with AI
Source: Washington Monthly
by Anita Jain
“Less than four years after ChatGPT’s debut, we are nowhere near understanding the role AI will play in our lives. Will it be as transformative as the internet? Will it cause mass unemployment? Will the next generation forfeit its capacity to think to AI models? Will we all soon be using AI agents to book our hotels and flights? How to scythe through the bramble? Cory Doctorow, a science fiction novelist and one of our keenest observers of technology, is out with The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late, a companionable guide to the subject.” (07/14/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/14/cory-doctorow-is-making-peace-with-ai/
NY: Hochul orders election year “pause” on new large-scale data centers to power AI
Source: New York Post
“New York state regulators won’t issue environmental permits for large-scale data centers for the next year, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday. Hochul will sign an executive order implementing a ‘moratorium’ on new air permits for so-called ‘hyperscale’ data centers trying to tap into the Empire State’s electrical grid for up to a year. … Roughly half of New York voters polled by Siena University last month said they thought a one-year moratorium on large data centers was good for the state, while 21% said they thought it was a bad idea and 17% indicated they were somewhere in the middle.” (07/14/26)