“Yesterday I wrote about how interest rates are rising around the world. I acknowledged that the higher rates are a real problem, but argued that there is no evidence that the U.S. faces a looming Greek-type debt crisis. Today I’ll talk about why it’s important for the future Democratic administration (assuming that we have free and fair elections in 2028) to keep a sense of perspective and not panic about the size of the federal debt.” (08/20/26)
“There are things it is possible to do and which are also things we might not want to do – however possible they are …. ‘Food Foundation sounds alarm over supply risks and price shocks as about 40% of Britain’s food is imported’ …. Yes, of course we can grow the food we need in Britain. … Trade means we can have more, different, foods cheaper and also that added bonus of leaving a bit of land for the wildlife. Bonzer, eh? We are richer through trade. At which point we’ve an actual think tank insisting we must make ourselves poorer by giving up those advantages of trade.” (08/20/26)
“Portland, Oregon exists in a pretzel-like, seemingly unsustainable juxtaposition to itself. Golden hour moments of pastoral perfection, in the shadow of mountains, at the banks of rivers. Afternoons in coffee shops and art museums and concert halls. The best food in the world. Meth psychotics, stalking the pavement, screaming at the sky. Homeless camps that sprawl. Emergency responders too overworked to respond. The city offers both paragon examples of urban living and seeming proof that western civilization has failed—often within mere blocks of one another. While paradoxical, the conditions on the ground aren’t mysterious, or arbitrary, or altogether externally-driven. The conditions are the logical end-result of explicit policy, a reflection of legislative and executive priorities.” (08/20/26)
“Last November, an article was posted that summarized Trump Administration Accomplishments in 2025 through October. At that time, President Trump had just signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, brokered a string of ceasefires, and was nine months into what was shaping up to be one of the most consequential presidencies in American history. Since then, the pace has, if anything, accelerated, with a full-scale operation resulting in the capture of a hemispheric narco-dictator, the implementation of the largest tax cut package in a generation, a childhood vaccine schedule overhaul, a new NATO spending baseline, and a genuinely dangerous stretch of open war with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz that is still not fully resolved as of this writing. Let us pick up where that article left off and summarize Trump administration accomplishments since then.” (08/20/26)
“A system with a small number of massive corporate conglomerates under which 99.9% of us have no substantive power whatsoever can never be one consistent with liberal democracy, the rule of law, or economic freedom. Those who focus their attention myopically on the current regime and the corruption thereof show that they understand neither the nature nor the scale of the social problem, and for this reason they can be of only little help in the struggles to come. Indeed, many are no less custodians of the political and economic status quo, and eagerly defend this system of corporate domination and economic fascism. The formal shape of or label on the structure of ownership and power tells us nothing on its own, our ideological delusions notwithstanding.” (08/20/26)
“When some Taylor Swift fans listened to the lyrics of her 2025 song ‘Wi$h Li$t,’ in which she sings about yearning to ‘settle down’ with ‘a couple kids,’ they heard a Republican dog whistle. On social media, they claimed that Swift’s desire for family life was ‘a conservative agenda on a silver platter.’ Swift, an avowed feminist who has endorsed Democratic political candidates, almost certainly did not set out to make ‘tradwife propaganda.’ But her online critics are getting at something real: Having children—particularly lots of children—has become a bit right-coded, as the kids say. Americans and Europeans who identify as leftist or liberal tend to have fewer children than those who identify as conservative or right-leaning.” (08/20/26)
“It wasn’t so many months ago that Democrats were debating about what their winning message should be for capturing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections and finally putting a needed check on President Trump. Should they stay laser-focused on Trump’s culpability for a laggard economy and American families’ affordability crisis? Or spotlight Trump’s overt and corrupt self-enrichment?
The answer, finally, became obvious to the ditherers: Both. Better late than never, the economy and corruption have merged as Democrats’ two-pronged cudgel against Trump. Midterm elections are, after all, a referendum on the president’s performance; the subservient Republicans on the ballot are simply his proxies.” (08/20/26)
