“Donald Trump and his administration are waging an unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on this year’s midterm congressional elections. Even compared to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the scope and severity of this assault is unprecedented. Despite all this, most — if not all — of these lines of attack will fail. They are built on magical thinking, pursued by people who lack basic understanding of how these things work. Some of these threats are more serious and pressing. But there can be a temptation to doomerism that we should reject. Trump is dangerous, but he is not omnipotent.” (02/13/26)
“U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Munich Security Conference this weekend to sooth transatlantic anxieties. After Vice President J.D. Vance’s criticisms of the old continent in 2025, the European dignitaries were looking for a more conventional American performance. What they got was a peculiar mix of primacist nostalgia and civilizational foreboding, with an explicit desire to forge a path of restoration together. ‘We are not looking for a rupture,’ the Secretary of State told his audience. ‘We want to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history,’ in a reference to the West. Predictably, Rubio – a neoconservative favorite in a pre-Trump GOP – ensured that it was America’s job to lead.” (02/14/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Peter Fenwick
“On February 6, 2026, the Dow Jones hit a record level of 50,000. It was now 5 times its level in 1999 when it hit 10,000 for the first time. But how real has the increase been? In 1999, $10,000 would have bought you 40 ounces (oz.) of gold. In 2026, $50,000 buys you only 10oz. of gold. The fact is that in 27 years, the dollar has lost 75% of its value.” (02/13/26)
“The people performing those mind-boggling contortions to justify, on libertarian grounds, state violence against migrants without papers — restrictatarians, I call them — cite a 1994 article by Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) in support of their double-jointed acrobatics. Rothbard was correct about many things, but a position is not correct merely because Rothbard held it. I expect no disagreement over that.” (02/13/26)
“In the beginning was scarcity, and scarcity was real, and survival was a way of life. Then, somewhere along the way, abundance happened. And after abundance — or because of it — came stagnation. And that paradox besetting everyone’s life had to produce a reaction sooner or later. And now we’re in the midst of the reaction.” (02/13/26)
“In authoritarian Russia, critics of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have an odd habit of falling out of windows. These likely acts of defenestration serve as a stark warning for other critics, although the official line is usually that they tripped or committed suicide. In the democratic United States, opponents of ICE agents in Minneapolis sometimes also meet unusual fates. For instance, court documents show that ICE agents claimed Mexican immigrant Alberto Castañeda Mondragón experienced bone fractures and head injuries after he ‘purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall’ — an explanation that was disputed by the medical staff …. the Trump administration’s outrageous whoppers regarding myriad ICE incidents — that, say, victims of ICE violence were insurrectionists or terrorists — are a loyalty test. The more preposterous the claim, the more it separates blind MAGA followers from everyone else. The distortions echo the Kremlin’s approach: they’re a warning to its foes.” (02/13/26)
“Last week, I wrote that students are beginning to treat speech as insufficient, as though persuasion is a kind of performance and disruption or violence is the only thing that works. I shared my own attempt to explain this to my students. But that lesson didn’t go as I had hoped. I left that class unsettled, and more than a little upset, realizing that so many of my students seem unmoved by the premise that words are a better alternative to force. I promised myself I would go back and try again. … I went prepared. I took more than moral exhortation. I took the best empirical record we have about political change. And I left feeling unsure that my students had even heard me.” (02/13/26)
“A mere 15 years ago, during an epoch that now seems as distant as the Paleozoic era, an American president attempted to use military power to prevent a dictator from slaughtering his own citizens. Barack Obama billed the action in Libya as a humanitarian intervention, citing the new United Nations doctrine of ‘responsibility to protect,’ or R2P. The president hoped to avert a massacre by Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi rather than, as usual, coming in afterwards to count the dead and try to bring the malefactors to justice. Obama intervened like a global police officer, following the letter of the (international) law. Eager to be seen as a ‘good cop,’ the president even promised to ‘lead from behind.’ It’s impossible to know if the US-led action did indeed prevent massive war crimes.” (02/14/26)
“For someone like me, economics is everywhere, if only you know where and how to look. Where is ‘economics’ when it comes to Valentine’s Day? Here are some of the less romantic suggestions” (02/13/26)
