“Last fall, when New York’s business community warned that the election of a self-described democratic socialist as mayor would trigger an assault on the city’s economic engine, we were waved off as hysterical. The press assured us that Zohran Mamdani was ‘evolving’, that his rhetoric would soften, that we should focus instead on his vague promises of ‘affordability’. That reassurance evaporated almost instantly. Barely two weeks after his swearing-in — amid lofty rhetoric about ‘the warmth of collectivism’ — the Mamdani administration unveiled its real agenda. Sam Levine, the newly installed commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and a veteran of Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission, released a sensational report accusing companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats of ‘diverting’ more than $500 million from delivery workers.” (02/02/25)
“A troubling convergence has emerged among Western think tanks, Israeli politicians, and exiled opposition figures advocating for the partition of Iran along ethnic and sectarian lines. This strategy represents a dangerous escalation from traditional regime change toward what can only be described as regime destruction, a policy shift that would benefit Israeli regional ambitions while catastrophically destabilizing the Middle East and creating humanitarian disasters that would dwarf the Syrian refugee crisis.” (02/02/26)
“In his second inaugural address, Trump claimed he wanted to be remembered as a peacemaker. Instead, he’s practicing what the scholar Alex de Waal calls ‘global mafia politics,’ the new rules of an unraveling order that render familiar debates between realists and idealists, or restrainers versus primacists, somewhat stale. To better understand this dynamic, I spoke to de Waal about his thesis that the ‘political marketplace’ now dominates international relations.” (02/02/26)
“Thanks to conservative justices, the law doesn’t allow him to compel cities, like Minneapolis, to bow to his immigration orders, and so he used ICE thuggery. It backfired. Now what?” (02/02/26)
“After Friday, when I worried about robots taking over, I was glad to read a debunking of the AI Will Destroy Us All meme, so in vogue. In ‘Superintelligent AI Is Not Coming To Kill You,’ from the March issue of Reason, Neil Chilson argues that we shouldn’t freak out. Not only do I not want to freak out, I don’t want to use AI very much — though I understand that, these days, sometimes it makes sense to consult the Oracles.” (02/02/26)
“Missouri lawmakers are considering a proposal to abolish the state’s income tax and replace it with a sales tax. They’re not alone: Last year, Mississippi approved legislation that will decrease the state income tax over several years until it’s eliminated. That follows in the footsteps of Kentucky and Oklahoma. New Hampshire, which has no income tax, phased out its tax on interest and dividends. Several states making the move are considering sales taxes to fill the revenue gap, and they have the backing of the White House. But a new report warns that sales taxes may have to be higher than anticipated to make up the difference — unless state governments shrink in size and expense.” (02/02/26)
“The Trump administration’s latest threat to impose secondary tariffs on any nation selling oil to Cuba represents a dramatic and catastrophic tightening of the six-decade-long, deliberate chokehold the United States has maintained on Cuba’s access to essential resources. This act of collective punishment against the Cuban people, for alleged crimes the US government has scarcely attempted to substantiate, will be felt across every aspect of daily life. According to Trump’s January 29 executive order, this latest escalation in economic warfare is framed as a response to the ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ the Cuban government allegedly poses to US national security.” (02/02/25)
“Trump’s threat to annex Greenland has revealed the shakiness of America’s commitment to NATO. Europe urgently needs to create its own alternative.” (02/02/26)
“President Donald Trump has nominated former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh to lead the U.S. central bank, instantly reviving an old debate with real market consequences: Is Warsh a hard-money hawk, a quiet dove, or something closer to a modern-day Paul Volcker? The answer matters, because investors are already trading the nomination as if Volcker himself just walked back into the Federal Reserve building.” (02/02/26)
