Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“After decades of subsidizing expansion, Brussels is now paying to destroy vineyards, without fixing the distortions it created. The European Union is paying to uproot vineyards. The new Wine Package, proposed in March 2025 with a provisional agreement reached in December 2025, proposes among several measures, the possibility of using EU funds for the voluntary destruction of productive vines, which represents the most visible sign of a market distortion created by decades of intervention from Brussels. Successive policies supporting the wine sector progressively disconnected production from market signals. The result was a growing imbalance, marked by persistent surpluses and, later, by subsidies aimed at vineyard removal itself.” 902/12/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul Mueller & Thomas Savidge
“Once firmly established in American finance, the proxy advisory industry now faces regulatory threats and AI-driven challenges. To survive, firms must serve customers, not political agendas.” (02/12/26)
“Belgian police searched offices of the European Commission on Thursday as part of an investigation into the 2024 sale of several Commission buildings to the Belgian state. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an independent body responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests, is leading the probe. EPPO confirmed to POLITICO it is conducting ‘evidence-collecting activities’ related to ‘an ongoing investigation.’ The office declined to provide further details, citing the need to protect the integrity of proceedings.” (02/12/26)
“Despite rising public debt, intensifying fiscal extraction, recurrent economic shocks, and heightened trade and policy uncertainty, the global economy has exhibited a striking degree of resilience. This resilience, however, goes beyond mere survival. It reflects a shift from robustness to what can be described as ‘antifragility,’ where systems not only withstand shocks but gain from them. This dynamic adaptation is evidenced not just in headline GDP figures consistently surpassing pessimistic forecasts, but more profoundly in the way markets adapt and evolve in response to these challenges, becoming stronger rather than merely enduring.” (02/12/26)
“South Africa’s president said Thursday that the country would send its troops into communities to help police fight the scourge of illegal mining and gang violence in its two provinces with the two biggest cities. According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, ‘organized crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy,’ endangering both economic stability and public safety, particularly in Gauteng and the Western Cape. … Authorities in South Africa have long struggled to prevent gangs of miners from entering some of the 6,000 closed or abandoned mines in the gold-rich nation to search for remaining reserves.” (02/12/26)
“For several months now, controversy has swirled over Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and his strange defense of Tucker Carlson against charges of antisemitism. A wave of staffers have resigned from Heritage in protest, as well as a number of high-profile trustees. More interesting than the daily drama of open letters and leaked team meetings, though, is the way the controversy has become a proxy fight for the battle to define the future of the conservative movement. Many of Roberts’s most passionate and vocal supporters come from the so-called ‘postliberal’ camp. … These new ideologues of the right seem far less interested in preserving the particular arrangements and commitments of the American Republic (and the philosophical truths they incarnate) than in promoting some abstract sense of, to use Howting’s term, ‘Western identity.'” (02/12/26)
