“Over the past decade, the leaders of corporate and international organizations became used to being lauded for making grand but ultimately empty, green promises on stages in Davos and climate summits. How quickly things have changed. Fear of being called out by the Trump administration is forcing many leaders into changing course – at least in their rhetoric. World Bank president Ajay Banga’s first move when he took over the institution in 2023 was to extend its mission from ending poverty to incorporate climate change and making the planet ‘livable.’ Last November, as he headed to the COP summit in Azerbaijan, Banga graced the cover of Time magazine’s ‘climate issue’ and warned that climate change was ‘intertwined’ with every challenge. Yet today, he somewhat implausibly tells reporters, ‘I’m not a climate evangelist.'” (04/16/25)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“There are two ways to defend any political position: Moral arguments or economic, more broadly consequentialist, arguments. The moral argument for libertarianism usually starts with the idea of negative rights, rights not to have things done to you. Moral arguments for other political positions sometimes start with positive rights, rights to get something, enough food, good medical care, an education. Other positions can be defended by claims of obligation to your sovereign, your country, your people.” (04/15/25)
“For hundreds of years, it has been clear that the blending of public and private interests in the economy leads to special favors for some at the expense of others.” (04/15/25)
“On December 31, 2024, my business partner and I bought a firearms manufacturer that makes a very inexpensive personal self defense pistol that sells for less than $120 and is made entirely in the USA. Many months of federal paperwork, licensing, leasing, filing, purchasing, moving, and working later, and we manufactured the first Altor pistol to be made in New Hampshire today, April 15, 2025. Tax Day.” (04/15/25)
“Diana Greene Foster is responsible for landmark research on the effects of abortion access — a massive 10-year study that tracked thousands of people who had an abortion or were denied one. But funding for a follow-up to her seminal Turnaway Study has just been cut as part of a wave of canceled health policy research. Foster received a MacArthur ‘genius grant’ for the Turnaway Study. That piece of research, which examined the impact of restrictions even before the fall of Roe v. Wade, helped shape public understanding of how abortion access can affect people’s health and economic well-being …. Foster’s new study was meant to build on that research, using quantitative analysis and in-depth interviews to follow people who sought abortions in or outside of the medical system after federal abortion rights were terminated, as well as those who carried their pregnancies to term.” [editor’s note: So get private funding as with the first study. “Problem” solved – TLK] (04/16/25)
“For two decades, the US military base at Guantanamo Bay has been a preferred spot to indefinitely detain individuals the US government does not like, mostly accused terrorists. In most cases these are folks the government would like to imprison for life but whom they don’t want to have tried in the US, either because they don’t really want to try to prove their accusations or due to public backlash against repatriating some admittedly bad folks. Whatever the reasons, the net effect is a Constitution-free zone where things we take for granted like due process and habeas corpus don’t obtain. … apparently [Donald Trump] has found an even better place — the CECOT prison in El Salvador. We are seeing now that this is one step even beyond Gitmo — while judges seem to have only limited reach into Gitmo, they do have some. But they have no reach into El Salvador.” (04/15/25)
“In recent decades, intrusive or authoritarian government policies have invariably been described as ‘Orwellian’ or ‘Kafkaesque.’ But these days, you will increasingly find more allusions to another past master of dystopian fiction: Philip K Dick. A prime example of this arrived last week, following reports that the British state is now running a ‘murder prediction’ programme. Apparently, the authorities believe they can use the personal data of known offenders to ‘predict’ who is at risk of committing future murders. … The idea of ‘precrime’ is indeed the stuff of science-fiction nightmares, but Dick’s hellish forebodings in this area and others have been coming to fruition for some time. … Indeed, the film, Minority Report, appeared at a time when ‘precrime’ was already becoming a reality.” (04/15/25)
“IRS agents have been indoctrinated to see taxpayers as a class enemy. This attitude is epitomized by ‘Culture Bingo,’ a game used to train IRS agents and auditors. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants complained that Culture Bingo and other ‘economic reality training modules’ encouraged examiners to think the worst of taxpayers. Culture Bingo sought to help employees recognize ‘an IRS organizational culture regarding the audit process.’ The game encouraged IRS agents to recognize or practice the following: ‘I use summons to get third party records.’ ‘Fraud referrals help an examiner get promoted.’ ‘Taxpayers can skim $20,000 and we’ll never find it.’ ‘Most taxpayers deposit unreported receipts in their bank accounts.’ After an IRS agent got enough other agents in the class to sign onto his ‘bingo’ card, he shouted out ‘I’ve got culture!’ and the class launched into a discussion of the reasons why these beliefs and practices were true and necessary.” (04/15/25)
“What if the America you pledge allegiance to isn’t the one running the show? This investigation examines how America’s governance system fundamentally transformed since 1871 through a documented pattern of legal, financial, and administrative changes. The evidence reveals a gradual shift from constitutional principles toward corporate-style management structures – not through a single event, but through an accumulation of incremental changes spanning generations that have quietly restructured the relationship between citizens and government.” (04/15/25)
“Art remains inherently tied to freedom, originating from the right to freedom of expression. Art, as a reflection of individual expression, has evolved alongside humanity. Considering art’s significance to society, a key question emerges: Should it be supported through public funding? From a libertarian standpoint, although art is widely acknowledged as valuable, there are three core arguments against its public funding. These stem from three distinct angles: the moral or philosophical view, the economic or utilitarian view, and the artistic view.” (04/15/25)
