Source: The Daily Economy
by Stefan Bartl
“Azerbaijan’s energy-dependent economy and California’s costly climate mandates reveal a common lesson: environmental policy works when it is local, adaptable, and intellectually humble.” (06/03/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-land-of-fire-and-the-cost-of-green-scarcity/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Ryan Yonk & Thomas Savidge
“James Buchanan’s Public Choice framework helps explain why political conflict intensifies and rhetoric becomes more divisive as government power grows.” (06/03/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/big-government-is-why-politics-keeps-getting-more-extreme/
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“I’ve written that corruption is the sleeper issue of 2026. Well, it’s awake. And the issue may be bigger than I realized. That’s the implication of a new national poll released Tuesday by the Brennan Center. The survey was conducted in late April and early May, just before the president’s attempt to create a $1.8 billion slush fund to funnel taxpayer money to his political allies. The results are striking. More than 9 in 10 voters believe corruption is a big problem across politics and government. Large majorities view corruption as endemic and deeply embedded in government institutions, from the Supreme Court to Congress to the presidency. They are dejected about the fact that scandals continuously go without consequences and shocking revelations fail to produce reform. Margins are overwhelming among Democrats, Republicans, and independents.” (06/03/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americans-are-furious-about-corruption
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes
“Google just announced plans to build a $15 billion data center in Montgomery County, in east–central Missouri. It remains to be seen how much of that investment will be reflected in property tax totals, but since the largest expense is going to be for the very expensive equipment in the data center itself — and that equipment is taxable — we can safely assume the assessed valuation of the final project will be enormous and almost certainly measured in the billions. This for a county that had an entire assessed valuation in 2025 of $315 million. Again, that’s every farm, house, car, tractor, building, boat, and cow in the county. … What do you think happens when you add huge assessed valuations from businesses that don’t add much to the public service requirements? The answer should be tax cuts, which is exactly what happened in Loudon County, Virginia.” (06/03/26)
https://showmeinstitute.org/article/corporate-welfare/data-centers-can-bring-their-own-tax-cuts/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Theodore Dalrymple
“The public does not need psychiatrists to tell them who is fit for office.” (06/04/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Matt Wolfson
“In a speech delivered in the autumn of 2002, as the United States moved inexorably toward war with Iraq, the late Joan Didion delivered an offhand remark that effectively summed up the flaw at the heart of the logic behind that coming war, and of the logic of a number of wars before it, and of a number of wars to come. Referring to ‘the ‘war on terror’ that the President had declared’ of which the operation against Iraq was the centerpiece, Didion added a parenthetical critique: ‘… as if terror were a state and not a technique.’ Twenty-three and a half years later, we live in the detritus of a general lack of understanding of precisely that point.” (06/03/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/terror-as-technique-in-american-policymaking
Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia
“Just as in a previous age of colonialism, today’s neo-imperialists justify themselves in terms of ‘uplifting’ inferior foreign peoples.” (06/03/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/return-of-the-white-mans-burden/
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider
“he United States and Russia have agreed on little in the war in Ukraine. The one thing they have agreed on is the existential necessity of avoiding a direct war between NATO and Russia, which could become a third world war or even a nuclear war. … The possibility of that caution failing is now at perhaps the highest level it has been at any time of the war. One flashpoint for a wider war is the Baltic states, while another is actually inside Ukraine, in the capital Kiev, which hosts American and European diplomats and military officers.” (06/03/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/russias-warnings-signal-danger-of-widening-war/
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley
“In a ruling Friday, District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the cessation of all repair plans for the Kennedy Center and the removal of Trump’s name from the building within two weeks. It is a detailed and comprehensive opinion, but I believe Judge Cooper is wrong about halting the repairs. I previously expressed skepticism over the claim that the board could order such a change unilaterally. At that time, I raised the very issues that Judge Cooper cited in his rejection of the right to rename the center without congressional approval. I agree with the court on its standing decision, which is hardly a surprise given my past writings in favor of broader standing. However, the opinion becomes more challengeable when the court addresses the decision to close the center for two years to carry out major renovations.” (06/03/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
Connor O’Keeffe
“As Kevin Warsh takes over as chair of the Federal Reserve, investors and financial media outlets are looking closely for any hints at how his appointment will impact monetary policy. One series of comments Warsh made while testifying to Congress back in April as a nominee has been getting more attention in recent weeks, following some high inflation reports. Essentially, Warsh signaled that he believed in focusing primarily on inflation data from core or even trimmed price indexes. To understand what that means or why it matters, it’s important to note that, originally, ‘inflation’ was a term that simply meant the act of increasing, or inflating, the money supply.” (06/03/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/warshs-concerning-interest-redefining-inflation