“China’s robotaxi revolution is moving along at an accelerated rate when compared to any other country. By the decade’s end, Goldman analysts forecast that half a million autonomous robotaxis will be operating across ten major cities. … This is wild. So what about a humanoid robot to load luggage? … Meanwhile, in the U.S., robotaxi operations have been lagging behind China, primarily due to regulatory fragmentation, a slower pace of infrastructure adaptation, and cautious public sentiment. … What’s becoming very clear is that automation is set to displace hundreds—if not millions— of transport jobs globally by 2035, as robotaxis, autonomous trucks, and drones become cheap enough to be deployable for the mass market.” (05/08/25)
“Using and misusing quotations from Shakespeare’s characters is a perennial problem. (The Bard didn’t hate attorneys.) Kudos to Judge Beryl Howell, in the Perkins Coie case, for getting it right.” (05/08/25)
“There is a battle over the university. Consider ‘DEI’ programs, long embedded in university life, or the fight over whether faculty should be permitted to ‘teach divisive concepts,’ or universities’ responses to the war in Gaza. But these are skirmishes. The real battle is over who runs the university anyway. One side claims that universities are independent, and so are free to determine for themselves whether to stay on the DEI trail, and so on. The other claims that universities are responsible to the societies that support them, especially financially. Accordingly, society’s elected representatives can and should actively determine what universities do or teach (e.g., by prohibiting campus DEI programs or mandating certain curriculum). To understand these arguments better, it’s best to step back, far back, to the Middle Ages.” (05/08/25)
“When the administration claims a power without the force of law, the law remains available to those who would resist. Case in point: Trump issued an executive order to force states to take specific steps to prove citizenship to vote in federal elections even though the Constitution gives the power of setting terms for federal elections to Congress and leaves the regulation of those elections to states. The order has already been partially blocked in court for exceeding executive authority. To take another example, Judge Beryl Howell struck down Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie, which, unlike so many of their competitors, chose to fight the administration in court. What’s more, because these fights are maximally public, significant downstream effects will result from today’s acts of resistance or capitulation.” (05/08/25)
“Mark Carney, the new prime minister of Canada, called the idea of Canada becoming America’s 51st state ‘crazy’. This assumes President Donald Trump was serious, as opposed to Trump taking a whack at former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In his acceptance speech, Carney said, ‘The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country … if they succeed, they will destroy our way of life.’ As to the Canadian way of life, a 2023 poll by the Canadian Angus Reid Institute found Canadians for the most part embrace it: ‘Overall, four-in-five Canadians (78%) say their country is a caring society, just one-in-three Americans say the same (36%). Nine-in-ten north of the 49th parallel say they live in a safe country (89%), while half as many — two-in-five (43%) — say this to the south. Further, 62% in Canada say their country contributes positively in world affairs, while 39% of Americans say this.'” (05/08/25)
“Throughout his 2024 run, the president promised Americans a return to the prosperity of his pre-COVID first term. ‘Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods,’ he told a Montana rally in August. ‘They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast,’ he declared days later in North Carolina. But at the same time, Trump also promised to impose steep tariffs on consumer goods …. These two pledges could not be reconciled, and once elected, Trump was forced to choose between them. … On issue after issue, whether domestic policy or foreign affairs, the president made incompatible assurances to rival camps on the campaign trail …. Now that Trump is in office, the bill for these guarantees is coming due, and he is making decisions that will inevitably alienate one of his constituencies.” (05/08/25)
“When President Donald Trump opened his second term in office with a barrage of attacks on his opponents and the structure of the federal government, it became immediately obvious that a clash with the judiciary loomed. How, for example, would the president respond when his efforts to block congressionally mandated funding were inevitably rejected by the courts? Would he listen and pare back his efforts? Or would he simply press the issue, forcing the country to ponder the uncomfortable question of how the nation’s most powerful politician could be held to account? Because one thing was very obvious: The Republican-controlled Congress wasn’t going to do a single godforsaken thing.” (05/08/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Alyssa Serebrenik
“For the past three months, I’ve been living in Denmark, and I genuinely loved it. The streets are clean, the bike lanes immaculate, and the sense of public trust is unlike anything I’ve experienced in the US. It’s no wonder people romanticize this place — ‘free’ healthcare, university stipends, and a government that many believe works well. But the longer I stayed, the more I started noticing cracks. They weren’t always visible at first—more like patterns in conversation, stories from international friends, or the quiet discomfort that settled in certain moments. Coming from the United States, where diversity and individualism are more overtly woven into everyday life, I couldn’t help but notice how the very system that offers so much comfort in Denmark comes with a cost.” (05/08/25)
