Category: Opinion

Source: Law & Liberty
by Lee Trepanier

“This should be viewed as the single most important goal of formal education.” (08/19/26)

https://lawliberty.org/reclaiming-reading/

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall

“Global inequality of income has been falling this past forty and fifty years. No, it’s not all about China either. The poor countries have been growing faster than the rich countries – inequality is falling. As Branko Milanovic has proven, this is also true if we consider inequality directly between people, not just as national units. This is even true of capital – as Milanovic again has proven, capital incomes are becoming more equally distributed. Agreed, agreed, from a very high level but still, that direction of travel is there. So, we know how to do global inequality reduction. Exactly what we’ve been doing. The Washington Consensus stops poor country governments doing stupid things, globalisation distributes the work and the incomes and, Tadah! global inequality reduces. Great, get really neoliberal on that global economy and Bob’s your parent’s sibling of choice. The usual suspects are demanding that all of this stop of course.” (08/19/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/but-global-inequality-has-fallen-is-falling-and-as-far-as-anyone-knows-is-going-to-continue-to-fall

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler

“Quality of life in Spain is among the highest in the world, but that isn’t enough to prevent young Spaniards from seeking careers abroad. The country has always struggled with high unemployment rates, especially among 15–25-year-olds, almost a quarter of whom are currently out of work. As a result, many young Spaniards, especially those with a university education, seek opportunities elsewhere: according to a 2023 survey, more than half of Spanish youth plan or would like to move to a different country. Those who do remain are often wildly overqualified for the jobs available to them.” (08/19/26)

https://fee.org/articles/spains-poor-job-market-is-causing-an-exodus/

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Doug Bandow

“Washington will have to get used to transformed international politics where it’s no longer the center of the universe.” (08/19/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-europe-independence/

Source: The American Prospect
by Katie Rose Quandt

“When Jerome Wright hears from people incarcerated in New York prisons, they describe a system in crisis. ‘I can tell you, unequivocally, from people in maximum, medium, every type of security they have in there, that the system has devolved into basically a lockdown,’ said Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign, who spent more than seven years in solitary confinement in New York prisons. ‘It’s almost like the entire system is in solitary confinement … People are losing their minds, literally. Some people are committing suicide.’ … This should not be the case in New York, where lawmakers in 2021 passed the HALT Act, designed to limit which infractions can be punished with solitary confinement, cap stints in solitary to 15 days (after which people can be moved to special, non-isolation units), and ban certain vulnerable populations from solitary altogether.” (08/19/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/08/19/proponents-of-solitary-confinement-attempt-to-stifle-reform/

Source: The Bulwark
by Cathy Young

“The anti-war, anti-government sentiment was apparently more than Putin bargained for.” (08/19/26)

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-real-danger-of-russias-fake-elections-fraud-war-ukraine-putin-yabloko

Source: Expression
by Michael Hurley

“From 2000 through 2024, FIRE recorded 102 cases of politicians trying to silence faculty. That’s four cases a year on average. Then, in 2025 alone, we recorded 114. That extraordinary spike comes as federal efforts to reform higher education have too often crossed constitutional lines. At the same time, the old threat of censorship by school administrators never faded. This year, South Florida State College fired professor Vinita Prabhakar after its president called a celebrated short story she assigned about an alcoholic teacher ‘political.’ Now Prabhakar, represented by FIRE and FIRE Legal Network member Gary Edinger, is suing the school.” (08/19/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/professors-are-being-squeezed-on

Source: Antiwar.com
by Greg Pence

“As the 2026 midterms approach, a nationwide poll released in early August delivered a warning that goes to the heart of the Republican Party’s political identity: for the first time in nearly a decade, voters said Democrats were better stewards of the economy than Republicans. For years, Republicans benefited from a broad perception that they were more trustworthy than Democrats on economic management, even when the record of Republican administrations was contested. … Now that advantage is beginning to crack – not because the U.S. economy is necessarily on the verge of collapse, but because many Americans are judging it less by macroeconomic indicators than by groceries, electricity bills, healthcare and insurance costs, housing, and what remains in their bank accounts at the end of the month. For Donald Trump and the Republican Party, that change in how voters measure economic performance could be costly.” (08/19/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/greg_pence/2026/08/18/the-gops-fading-economic-advantage/

Source: Independent Institute
by Daniel Sánchez-Piñol

“Why did removing border fences in Gibraltar spark no migration crisis, while Ceuta’s fortified perimeter failed?” (08/18/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/08/18/tale-two-borders-ceuta-gibraltar/

Source: New York Post
by Betsy McCaughey

“Betting markets show Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the frontrunner to snag the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nomination. But despite earning $173,000 a year as a member of Congress, AOC refuses to pay back her student loans — a red flag that she has no respect for taxpayers. Her supporters claim her college loans make her relatable. ‘This is what happens when we elect normal people to Congress,’ leftist activist David Hogg posted approvingly. ‘I need a president that’s still drowning in student loan debt with me,’ another fan wrote. Households in the top fifth for earnings are three times more likely to have college debt than households in the bottom fifth of the economy. That means when doctors, lawyers and members of Congress don’t pay their college loans, working stiffs who never got to go to college — bus drivers, waiters and sanitation workers — end up on the hook.” (08/19/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/08/19/opinion/deadbeat-aocs-student-loan-mooching-should-be-red-flag-to-her-2028-supporters/