“This month, three democracy-tracking organizations released analyses of the state of political, press, and personal freedoms around the world. The title of one report, ‘The Growing Shadow of Autocracy,’ sums up a shared view about backsliding on all these fronts. Yet the data and perspectives also reveal progress – especially in the enduring and widespread appeal of democratic ideals and values. Looking back at 2025, the Sweden-based Variety of Democracies Institute, known as V-Dem, counts 44 countries worldwide that it says are ‘autocratizing,’ including the United States. In particular for the U.S., V-Dem cites recent ‘attacks on the press, academia, civil liberties, and dissenting voices.’ On the other hand, the Dartmouth College-based Bright Line Watch finds that declining views of American democracy from earlier in 2025 have ‘largely stabilized’, and public opinion now shows ‘mild optimism.'” (03/25/26)
“It is reasonable to imagine a wave of unease washing over the members of the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on 18 March 1919. The council had just rushed through the passing of what would be known as the Rowlatt Act, named after the chair of its producing committee, which extended the wartime powers of the police to make use of normally extra-judicial measures to curb civil unrest. Indian soldiers played a decisive role in the British imperial forces, and there was a widespread expectation that India ought to become more self-governing as part of the settlement in the postwar period. However …” (03/26/26)
“My main qualification for talking about personal identity is that I have been around for long enough to have thought quite a lot about my own identity. I hope that what I have to say will interest other people. In any case, writing this podcast script should also help me to remember what I have learned about myself. Rather than meander through the circuitous history of my thinking, I will focus here on what I now consider to be a sensible approach to the topic. I will begin by discussing the most superficial aspects of personal identity and will end up considering whether your identity would be retained if your consciousness was uploaded into a machine.” (03/26/26)
“The joint US-Israeli killing of Iranian leaders on February 28th marked the second time in a year that the United States had used negotiations as a decoy for a surprise attack. On the pattern of Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, our own invasion of Iraq in 2003, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. under President Trump has indeed launched a criminal war of aggression. The run-up to the war, however, followed a discernible pattern. Throughout the months preceding it, the Trump administration was testing the American public’s tolerance for just such an adventure. First came the drone killings of alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ on boats in the Caribbean Sea; then, the kidnapping of the President of Venezuela; and finally, the seizure of oil tankers said to originate from Venezuela (an act of piracy by any other name).” (03/26/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Zachary A Collier
“It’s spring, which is bad news if you have pollen allergies, but is good news if you are planning to buy or sell a home: this is typically the busiest season for home sales. If you are buying a home or selling a home, the concept of value is one that is very important to keep in mind. Why is one buyer willing to offer more than another for the same house? Or why would a seller be willing to lower the price of their home? Everyone places different values on goods, and the same person can even place different values on the same good under different circumstances. But what gives something value, and why does it matter?” (03/26/26)
“The nation is close to marking the tenth anniversary of the discredited Crossfire Hurricane investigation, which saw the FBI and Justice Department seeking a FISA intercept against Carter Page by relying on false news stories and a partisan oppo research dossier. These days, nobody defends the Carter Page warrant process, but ten years later we still haven’t figured out how bad the abuse was. In fact, just last week we learned that Carter Page was not the only U.S. political figure subjected to a dubious FISA surveillance.” (03/26/26)
“‘Is it an earthquake or simply a shock? Is it the good turtle soup or merely a mock?’ Those opening lines from Frank Sinatra’s 1962 hit song ‘At Long Last Love’ came to mind when President Trump parried with reporters on March 13 over how to characterize the U.S.-Israeli aerial bombardments of Iran. Trump called it a ‘little excursion.’ Some thought he meant to say incursion. But when a reporter pressed him and asked, ‘which is it, a war or an excursion?’ Trump stuck to his semantical guns and hedged: ‘Well, it’s both. It’s an excursion that will keep us out of a war, and the war is going to be — for them it’s a war, for us it turned out to be easier than we thought.’ … The president’s semantic juggling over whether to call our current military operation a war or an excursion cannot gloss over that we are already at war with Iran.” (03/26/26)
“The Declaration of Independence was both performative and expressive. It announced the United States as a separate entity from Britain. It also articulated the core political premises on which the new nation was established. The commemoration of its 250th anniversary will mostly focus on its first function, because a nation, like a person, most readily celebrates its birth. But especially at our time of division and polarization, a renewed focus on our founding principle has never been more urgent.” (03/26/26)
