“The Shia Muslim terror proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Houthis of Yemen, are tightening their control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This is a big deal, because an average of 8.1 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum liquids moved through the Strait during the second quarter of 2026. There is also the non-energy trade. All this international trade then heads to Europe and/or the Americas. … With Iran also threatening the Strait of Hormuz—however ineffectively—this is bound to have grave repercussions for the world energy market and the international economy. Which leads me to my big question for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi: ‘What would you say … you do here, President Sisi?'” (09/18/26)
“While we’ve grown used to public school educators fiddling with grades, exams like those currently required — even if far from perfect — constitute an even better way to glean how well (or badly) teachers and students are doing. Government schools suffer, of course, from ‘increased spending and mediocre results,’ as Reason puts it. (I covered Michigan’s problems yesterday, for example.) The avoidance of ‘metrics’ — in business lingo — is just the kind of evasion that one might expect from under-performing institutions. New York’s opt-in downgrade is comparable to a failing student doctoring his report card or forging a parent’s signature.” (09/18/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jared Walczak
“A recent tax court ruling in Maryland pours cold water on a tax proposal championed in Michigan by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Maryland Tax Court struck down that state’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax, ruling that it violated the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, as well as the interstate commerce and due process clauses of the US Constitution. Lawsuits have also been filed in Utah and Illinois, which adopted their own digital advertising taxes earlier this year.” (09/18/26)
“More than six months after Trump started the war, and nearly three months after he signed an agreement that would supposedly end it and normalize shipping, the U.S. and Iran are still fighting over the Strait of Hormuz. The damage keeps growing, and the Trump White House is both unable to fix it and unwilling to admit it.” (09/18/26)
Source: In These Times
by US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
“AI experts have told us that, within a few years, AI may be able to do anything we can do better than we can do it. The economic impact of that is that AI has the potential to eliminate tens of millions of jobs, wiping out entire professions and making it harder for young people to enter into the workforce. But it’s not just the economy. Psychologists have warned us about the increased isolation and mental health challenges young people are experiencing as they become more dependent upon an AI chatbot for their emotional support. Educators are worried about a decline in our kids’ reading scores, writing abilities and cognitive capabilities. Civil libertarians warn that AI is in the process of eviscerating our privacy rights by making it easier to collect and analyze every[thing we do], creating a mass surveillance state.” (09/17/26)
“A psyop is never just one thing. It’s a wilderness of mirrors. A single mirror shows you one reflection you can identify and correct for. A wilderness of them means every angle you check reflects another angle, with no clean vantage point outside the hall to verify against, which is functionally what a multi-actor convergence produces, even without any one person orchestrating it. You don’t need an overlord director standing behind the glass for the hall of mirrors to work. And that’s the unsettling part: a single coordinated psyop presumably has an off switch, in principle, if you ever find the operator. A wilderness of independently-incentivized mirrors doesn’t.” (09/18/26)
“[A]s Gideon J. Tucker wrote in 1866, ‘no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.’ … [Speaker of the House Mike] Johnson seems to have found a way to turn Tucker’s aphorism on its head, frequently using the absence of Congress to protect existing depredations, rather than the presence of Congress to drum up new ones. ‘The House has now canceled at least 63 scheduled voting days this Congress, including nine days this month alone,’ notes US Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC). When Johnson thinks he’s going to lose a vote — with ‘lose’ defined as upsetting or defying president Donald Trump — he just sends everyone home until he can whip a few more House members into line, or at least until the loss might come at a slightly less embarrassing point in the news cycle.” (09/17/26)
“I’m retirement age, but I think it’s my duty to explain to young people why things are so hard for them. So, from here on I’ll be writing to you, meaning people who are roughly in the 18-45 age range. I’ll also be writing very freely and using a lot of generalities: you’ll have to interpret this for yourself. Let’s start by saying that millions of you have been given a raw deal. I’ve watched this in a great deal of discomfort: You struggle just to rent a house, much less buy one. Jobs come and go like the wind. Your university degree came with an inescapable pile of debt. You have conflicting moral leanings and opinions. All of this isn’t fair. But with that said, organizing your world around a villain is a road to nowhere.” (09/17/26)
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“This morning I came across an article critical of Americans voting for Libertarians, as it takes away from Republican wins. I found this interesting because often we are criticized as tilting at windmills and a complete waste of people’s time, yet apparently, according to Edward Ring, we are a critical component in politics. Ring … attempts unsuccessfully to argue that ‘libertarians cause more harm than good.’ Why? Because Americans who vote for Libertarians cause Republican losses. … no political faction owns Americans’ votes. Politicians must earn our vote, and if Republicans and Democrats want Libertarians to vote for them, then they are going to demonstrate that they will protect our civil liberties, be fiscally responsible, and reduce government power. It shouldn’t be much to ask, but Ring doesn’t care about that; he wants Republicans to remain in power, and he views Libertarians as a roadblock and a hindrance.” (09/17/26)
“Postliberals as a group have made no secret of the fact that they view mainstream economics as inhumane with its focus on consumption and GDP growth. Sometimes their arguments are questionable, but it’s true that modern economics has a way of embracing a flat, utilitarian view of the world, sometimes pushing that view into realms where it doesn’t belong. But should economists incorporate concerns about virtue, ethics, and happiness into their economic theory? Yes, but this question is more difficult than it appears. The issue is not whether ethics matter, but whether ethics should shape economic models themselves or merely how those models are applied.” (09/17/26)
