Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“Suppose we come up with really good pleasure drugs, drugs that give us lots of pleasure without negative side effects such as hangovers or cirhosis of the liver. If we accept the economist’s model of the rational actor, their invention is clearly a good thing. It expands our choice set, provides us one more and possibly better way of getting what we want. To people skeptical of the rational model, that conclusion is less clear. To see the problem, consider an extreme version. Larry Niven, in some of his stories, describes wireheads, people who have had a wire inserted into the pleasure center of their brain and stimulate it with a mild electric current. The intense pleasure that results dominates all other concern, making it possible for a wirehead to die of hunger and thirst because getting food or drink is simply more trouble than it is worth.” (06/22/26)
“America’s most powerful central banker and an apostle of freedom and free enterprise, Alan Greenspan, passed away at age 100 early this morning. May he rest in peace. He served as Federal Reserve chairman between 1987 and 2006. Nearly 20 years. He was a great man. And a friend and mentor to myself and many other conservative economists. And during his period as Federal Reserve chairman, he prosperously piloted our economy through 3.2 percent annualized real GDP growth per year and an average of 2.5 percent inflation, even as he successfully navigated us through a number of crises. Meanwhile, job creation boomed during his tenure, stock markets soared, real incomes rose. Greenspan was at heart an old-fashioned conservative business economist with a strong belief in limited government, lower taxes, and minimal regulation.” (06/23/26)
“America was founded on the idea that individuals should be free to pursue their own lives, fortunes, and happiness without excess government interference. The nation’s story has long been one of people fleeing constraints and moving towards opportunity. As the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary, it’s natural to ask whether the nation still embodies this. My answer is mostly yes. The U.S. remains one of the freest and most prosperous societies in human history, and continues to attract millions of immigrants. But do Americans themselves still intuitively feel this way about their country? Increasingly, the answer appears to be no. That is reflected in the rise of ‘geomaxxing,’ a buzzy internet term that describes a serious trend. More Americans are looking beyond their own borders for better quality of life, lower costs, and greater freedom.” (06/22/26)
“One of the basic freedoms we have in this country, enshrined in our Constitution, is the freedom to contract. Two or more parties with differing interests can agree to just about anything, as long as it isn’t illegal, and our country’s court system will enforce that agreement. The rules work a little differently when the government is part of the agreement. The government has the ability to contract as well, but the ability is defined and limited by law. It should be. We, the people, have an interest in the deals that our government is making. Especially if tax money, or government resources paid for by tax money, is part of the deal.” (06/22/26)
“Donald Trump’s Iran deal (or perhaps we should say ‘capitulation?’) is a fiasco for the United States and Trump’s presidency, but it is widely viewed as a catastrophe for Israel. The more Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu tries to undermine the deal by mounting attacks on southern Lebanon, the more he enrages Trump, who keeps pointing out that the U.S. is Israel’s only ally in the world. Israel is now more isolated than ever. Israel was deliberately excluded from negotiations with Iran, because Israel was known to oppose any deal that would shorten the war. Nonetheless, in the deal the U.S. bound Israel to cease attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Recent polls conducted in Israel show that some 92 percent of Israelis believe that Iran won the war. Comparable majorities say Netanyahu’s launching of the war was a calamitous mistake and achieved none of its objectives.” (06/23/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Katrina Gulliver
“In his new book, New Space Capitalism: The Entrepreneurial Path to the Stars, Rainer Zitelmann presents the idea that private enterprise is the best way for space exploration to go forward, pointing out the ways in which public funding, since the days of the Moon landing, has been too uneven (and insufficient) to make the advances possible. When reaching space initially was a political contest, the spirit was there, but since the end of the Cold War, it has been less of a priority. … But today, billionaires have become more involved, and the prospect of space tourism has also put more money into the enterprise.” (06/22/26)
“If the U.S. government is entitled to summarily kill suspected drug traffickers abroad, there is no reason why the same prerogative would not eventually be invoked on the home front. If politicians truly want to protect Americans, why not authorize the U.S. military, state police, and county government dog catchers to summarily attack any boat suspected of transporting drugs on the nation’s lakes, rivers, or overgrown puddles? Actually, such warped logic has already been taken to absurd ends. The core follies of the Trump-Hegseth war of extermination on drug suspects were established almost a quarter-century ago. American illicit drug users miraculously became collectively guilty for every terrorist attack in the world.” (06/22/26)
“It started in a London coffee house in the 1680s. Merchants and ship captains crowded the tables, and somewhere between the gossip and the gambling, they began betting on the things everyone else was afraid of. Hurricanes. Pirates. Ships lost at sea. Three hundred years later, the same place would ensure Bruce Springsteen’s voice and the legs of a Hollywood actress. It’s called Lloyd’s, and most people think it’s an insurance company. But it’s something stranger and far more interesting. Lloyd’s is a risk marketplace. And buried in how Lloyd’s works is a schematic for reinventing government itself.” (06/22/26)
