Source: EconLog
by Leonidas Zelmanovitz
“What I want to propose in this short essay is that there may be a way to make sense of what is going on in Argentina that is neither purist nor pragmatic, but practical. That is, one that recognizes reality but does not abandon principles. To help us with that, let us talk about policy dominance.” (04/21/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/policy-dominance-in-argentina
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (04/21/26)
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy
“History will not judge President Trump’s decision to start this war by what it did to Iran. It will hold its harshest judgment for what it has done to America. However this ends, the United States is already diminished by it, militarily, diplomatically, economically and morally. None of that damage is hypothetical. It is clear in the absence of a durable strategic outcome, in the strain it has placed on allies and markets, and in the erosion of America’s claim to be the defender of the rules and norms that long rested on its power.” (04/21/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Matt Wolfson
“Much of the spread of Zionist and Hindutva ideologies through powerful Jewish and Hindu spheres occurred from the efforts of connected professionals and financiers and technologists, as I have related in reports for the Libertarian Institute in August and November and December and April. But the spread of these ideologies among powerful Jews and Hindus likely also occurred because these ideologies played into the influence Jewish and Hindu players were already enjoying in American empire. Indeed, from their inceptions both Zionist and Hindutva ideology have been explicitly tuned to and so attractive to imperialists.” (04/21/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Thom Hartmann
“Republicans are at it again, and it’s hard to overstate how chilling this is and what it tells you about the direction people in this Party want to take America. Texas Congressman Chip Roy is preparing to introduce legislation he’s calling the ‘MAMDANI Act,’ named after Zohran Mamdani, the recently elected democratic socialist mayor of New York City, that would let the federal government bar entry to, deport, and strip naturalized citizenship from any person who advocates for or is ‘affiliated with’ what Roy calls ‘totalitarian’ movements. The list includes, from Rep. Roy’s webpage: ‘[A] socialist party, a communist party, the Chinese Communist Party, or Islamic fundamentalist party, or advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.’ The bill targets people who ‘write, distribute, circulate, print, display, possess, or publish’ material supporting socialism or any of those other ideas.” (04/21/26)
Source: Grist
by Leia Larsen
“Plug-in solar panels — sometimes called “balcony solar” — allow people to generate electricity by plugging panels directly into a standard outlet and help cut down on utility bills, without the need for expensive rooftop installations. The relatively cheap technology has taken off in parts of Europe, and a recent Utah law sponsored by [state representative Raymond] Ward has spurred interest across the U.S. … Residential households are only designed to pull power off the grid, through wires to outlets, and into plugged-in devices. Balcony solar does the opposite by creating power and pushing it backward into the outlet and ‘upstream’ through a home’s wires, Ward explained.” (04/21/26)
Source: The Dispatch
by Adam Omary
“Economic models, rooted in assumptions of rational agents maximizing utility under constraints, have long provided elegant frameworks for understanding human behavior in markets and societies. Yet, a persistent friction exists between these idealized portrayals of human beings and the ways humans actually navigate economic choices. People frequently champion policies that contravene basic economic principles, including minimum wages presumed to boost income without increasing unemployment, rent controls expected to enhance housing affordability without reducing supply, or tariffs that run counter to comparative advantage and affordability.” (04/21/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/economic-intuitions-evolutionary-psychology/
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“Imagine celebrating the price of corn or wheat hitting a record high. That would make perfect sense if you grew corn or wheat, but it’s hard to see why anyone else would be celebrating. This is the same story with the stock market, even though shareholders are a somewhat larger share of the population than corn or wheat farmers. But the basic principle is the same.” (04/21/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/21/the-stock-market-is-not-your-friend/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ramzy Baroud
“For decades, Americans overwhelmingly aligned with Israel. This was not merely ideological; it was instructional. The public was told – repeatedly – that Israel reflected ‘American values’: democracy, civility, modernity. Palestinians and Arabs, by contrast, were framed as perpetual antagonists, initiators of violence, and ‘obstacles to peace.’ Some Americans embraced this framing on religious or ideological grounds. But for the majority, the pro-Israel position became a default – an inherited conclusion rooted in limited access to alternative information. Israel was ‘good,’ Arabs were ‘bad.’ The narrative was simple, binary, and rarely challenged. With mainstream media as the primary source of information, this perception hardened over time. Support for Palestine, and for broader Arab causes, remained confined to academic spaces and activist circles – often informed by anti-colonial and anti-imperialist frameworks, but numerically marginal and politically contained. The mainstream remained locked in place. But that lock has been broken.” (04/21/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Judy L Shelton
“Kevin Warsh is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. The vote on his confirmation as Federal Reserve chairman may hinge on the Justice Department’s dropping its inquiry into whether the current chairman, Jerome Powell, testified inaccurately about cost overruns in renovating Fed headquarters. It would be a pity if we have to wait. The U.S. dollar would benefit from new thinking at the Fed. Lawmakers should be much more focused on the damage that Fed policies are inflicting on the soundness of America’s money. It’s also time that Congress, which is charged with ensuring a trustworthy currency, recognized that outsourcing this responsibility to the Fed is a big part of the problem.” (04/20/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/20/kevin-warsh-and-the-erosion-of-the-dollar/