Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Moses
“We are witnessing a troubling migration — a flight of capital and talent from states that have adopted increasingly aggressive tax policies. Elon Musk moved Tesla and X from California to Texas; Palantir relocated to Colorado. High-profile individuals and corporations are pulling up stakes and relocating to states with more favorable tax policies. A casual observer might interpret such migrations as a strategic response to changing cost structures. But that framing misses the deeper issue. These departures are not just about lowering costs; they reflect an effort to exit a system that has decidedly turned against them.” (06/15/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s so pathetic watching Elon Musk’s groveling bootlickers fall all over themselves on social media to defend their favorite oligarch from criticism as he becomes the world’s first trillionaire. They’re like ‘Don’t be mean to the trillionaire, just become a trillionaire yourself! All you need is luck, connections, wealthy parents, the ruthlessness to step on anyone who gets in your way, and a willingness to cooperate with murderous imperial institutions like the Pentagon and the CIA!’ Elon Musk is a military-industrial complex plutocrat who is balls deep in the US intelligence cartel and recently facilitated the US-Israeli attempted regime change operation in Iran. You have infinitely more in common with the average person in Iran, Cuba, Lebanon or Palestine than you have with the world’s first trillionaire.” (06/14/26)
“Mr. Musk’s wealth is in the company that just took on new investors, driving up his shares. If he started selling his shares, the value of the stock would plummet before he found enough buyers. It is Mr. Musk’s managerial genius and technological vision that is responsible for the company’s success, so any step back from control — even by relinquishing stock — would almost certainly spell disaster. And if he vanished off the face of the Earth, our global civilization would feel it. What Elon Musk’s envious haters do not seem to understand is that Musk succeeds by developing products that people, businesses, and governments are willing to pay big bucks for.” (06/15/26)
“The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, will be officially leaving her post on June 19. She is resigning to care for her husband, who is battling a rare form of bone cancer. Gabbard has enjoyed a remarkably successful tenure as DNI and is using her final days in office to unleash several bombshell reports. On Friday, Gabbard rescinded two intelligence assessments from the administration of President Joe Biden regarding the mysterious set of ailments known as ‘Havana Syndrome,’ which has sickened our spies and diplomats on missions throughout the world. … the Biden administration downplayed the reports and dismissed the possibility that the ailments were caused by a foreign adversary. Gabbard blasted these findings for excluding key information, suppressing ‘alternative analysis,’ and using an ‘ethically flawed medical study.'” (06/15/26)
“Early Monday morning Islamabad time, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that ‘Following intensive talks, we are pleased to announce that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED. Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon. The official signing ceremony will be on Friday, 19 June in Switzerland.’ Pakistan and Qatar had been the lead negotiators, though Qatar’s negotiating team appears to have sealed the deal Sunday with a marathon 14-hour session. The White House concurred. US President Donald Trump posted that the deal with Iran is ‘complete’ and that he would immediately lift the US blockade on the Strait of Hormuz and is announcing its ‘toll-free’ opening. ‘Let the oil flow’, he said.” (06/15/26)
“A decade ago, kratom advocates fought a surprisingly successful campaign against a proposed Drug Enforcement Administration ban that claimed the obscure Southeast Asian plant posed ‘an imminent hazard to public safety.’ They won bipartisan allies from Bernie Sanders to Rand Paul, and helped create a billion-dollar industry out of kratom, which has pain-relieving effects they said could help fight the opioid epidemic as a far safer, natural alternative to pills. Now, many of those same pro-kratom activists are calling for a ban on products containing concentrates of one of kratom’s active components: 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, an ultra-potent extract with opioid-like effects. And it’s causing major friction amongst consumers, sellers, and advocates of both substances.” (06/15/26)
“Smith observed that significant economic inequalities arise not from voluntary exchange but from distortions that restrict competition, channel resources toward favored interests, and limit economic mobility.” (06/15/26)
“Buying SpaceX shares was never something I was likely to do. I understand the perspectives of the enthusiastic, the skeptical and the outraged, but I recognize that my inclination toward the skeptical camp is substantially personality-driven. I’m just congenitally skeptical. But I think one thing all three camps may not be acknowledging as fully as they should is the degree to which pricing a company like SpaceX is genuinely extremely difficult because to such a considerable degree what drives its value is a portfolio of real business options, which are inherently difficult to value. That doesn’t usually matter because real business options are usually only marginal factors in valuing a large company like SpaceX. But we’ve entered a world where there are real business options of plausibly extraordinary value, and that world is just genuinely very weird.” (06/15/26)
