Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
‘As we all wait for reality, and/or China, to catch up with the Silicon Valley AI boys, it might be a good time to go back in time a bit and see what it looked like in the past when our bubbles burst, specifically the tech bubble in 2001 and the housing bubble in 2008. Fortunately, it is easy to find the key data.” (05/21/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Michael Corbin
“The US has a choice between managing what is a shift away from US backed currency using military and economic restraint, or accelerating it.” (05/21/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/petrodollar-death-exaggerated/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Ilya Shapiro
“Timothy Sandefur’s book reminds us of the promise and brilliance of the Declaration.” (05/21/260
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/independence-explained-like-it-matters-again/
Source: EconLog
by Alex MacDonald & Tammy McCutchen
“Nowadays, it’s hard to read anything about workplace policy without running into ‘“algorithmic management.’ Companies, we’re told, are increasingly controlling workers through an array of digital ‘tricks.’ These companies record our keystrokes, track our locations, and even watch us through our webcams. We hear this same story in academic journals, government reports, and the popular press. In fact, the story has even made its way into federal regulations — specifically, in the U.S. Department of Labor’s current rule about independent contractors. Like the more popular accounts, this rule assumes that algorithmic management is pervasive. And it treats the practice as a form of ‘control.’ There’s only one problem: algorithmic management isn’t a real thing.” (05/21/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/algorithmic-management-monitoring-and-control
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“One way or another, the American taxpayers always get screwed by politicians eager to spend our hard-earned dollars on programs and projects that do little to improve our lives, safeguard our freedoms, or secure our future. Donald Trump — the billionaire trust-fund baby/reality TV showman who transformed himself into a populist champion of working-class Americans — has proven to be no different, and in many ways worse, than the politicians who came before him. Trump has given new meaning to government corruption, graft, grift, profiteering, self-dealing and pay-to-play politics.” (05/20/26)
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“I know, a lot of people are very excited about the primary defeat of U.S. Republican Thomas Massie (KY-4). I’m just not one of them. Not because I liked him, I honestly couldn’t care less about any politician and found him particularly annoying on quite a few issues, but because his defeat won’t make a single bit of difference in the grand scheme of things. No individual politician, especially in Congress, will. They are all temporary and don’t deserve your loyalty, ideas and ideals do. Massie was a reliable vote on most things for Republicans, but he started to get high on his own supply – seduced by the media coverage of his obsession with Jeffrey Epstein and the idea that there is a network of pervert monsters out there somewhere that he could help put away.” [editor’s note: He’s right that one congresscritter is unlikely to make a difference. And it’s so unusual for Derek Hunter to be right about ANYTHING that I considered it worth noting – TLK] (05/21/26)
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“Price controls are one of the most studied policy interventions in economics, and the near-universal verdict among economists is that they backfire. The core problem is that prices are signals, not villains. Prices convey information about scarcity, cost of production, and consumer demand. When a government artificially suppresses a price below the market-clearing level, it does not eliminate the underlying cost pressures; it merely hides them while creating new distortions. The basic supply-and-demand mechanism explains clearly why shortages result. A price cap set below the market price simultaneously increases demand because more consumers want the now-cheaper product, and decreases supply; producers and retailers earn less, so they reduce output, stock less, or exit the market entirely.” (05/20/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-snps-john-swinney-intends-to-impose-price-controls-on-food
Source: Cato Institute
by Andrew Gillen
“One of the best parts of last year’s reconciliation bill was the introduction of an accountability rule called the Do No Harm rule that will cut off student loans for programs where students earn too little after graduation. The bar is very low. For undergraduate programs, graduates will only need to earn more than a comparable high school graduate who did not attend college, and for graduate programs, students need to earn more than those with a bachelor’s degree. Programs that fail to meet this benchmark for two out of three years would lose access to the federal student loan programs. Nevertheless, there are many programs that do not clear this very low bar.” (05/20/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/cosmetology-schools-want-rules-trimmed-back
Source: Niskanen Center
by Alexander Mechanick
“I argue that the United States has had three systems of federal administrative procedure: a two-track system lasting from the Founding to the Gilded Age, a second system from the late 1800s to the 1960s that would be codified in the APA, and the third system that was constructed beginning in the 1960s and that we still live in today. This piece covers the first two of these systems: the development of federal administrative procedure from the Founding to the enactment of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946.” (05/20/26)
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“It is not just us peons (middle or lower class, out of government, etc.) that should listen to the advice on whom to trust. Even the most powerful and secure of human rulers, princes, leaders, etc. need to remember that they cannot trust other rulers, etc. Even those less powerful than they are. We should remember that far more kings, presidents, etc. have been betrayed and overthrown by other powerful people than ever deposed by true grassroots actions.” (05/20/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/05/20/put-not-our-trust-in-princes-or-anyone-else-in-power/