“Donald Trump likes exports and foreign investment, and laments imports and trade deficits. Most economists find this a baffling bundle of preferences — and the more they know about international trade, the more baffled they are. Never mind the truism that the whole point of exports is to buy imports. Doesn’t Trump know that getting more foreign investment raises trade deficits by definition? How confused can you get? While I agree that Trump is terribly wrong about international trade, there’s a big difference between being wrong and being confused. While I doubt I’m ready to pass an Ideological Turing Test for Trumpian trade theory, I recently had a weird epiphany on the topic. After said epiphany, I feel capable of articulating roughly what Trump is thinking.” (03/10/26)
“Dimitri Simes defected to the U.S. in the seventies and was a proud American for five decades, until he was criminally charged with a Soviet-style offense: being a journalist.” (03/10/26)
“Many business leaders think that a stricter return-to-office policy will cause a surge in productivity. But in reality, the data tell a different story. Across practitioner reports and peer-reviewed research, including a new report from the Institute for Corporate Productivity, organizations that commit to highly flexible models, including remote-first, report strong output, healthier engagement, and faster growth than mandate-driven peers. The newest practitioner evidence should give leaders confidence. In the institute’s Remote-First Organizations report, most leaders in remote-first firms say productivity remains high. A sizable share report that it is very high, even though the majority of these companies avoid invasive monitoring of employees. The research frames remote-first as a deliberate operating model anchored in trust, clarity and well-designed touchpoints, not a stopgap. Independent national data aligns with these practitioner insights.” (03/10/26)
“The Nation opposes Trump’s latest war, as do most Americans. But we are concerned that the response of many commentators to the Trump catastrophe is to hope for a return to a failed old order — a system of ‘rules’ and strategies so unpopular that voters have already rejected them. That naïve longing ignores the need for this country to take a new look at its place in the world.” (03/10/26)
“We live in a paradoxical informational landscape. Never before have citizens had access to such an abundance of data, expert commentary, real-time analysis, and historical context. The digital age promised a ‘Great Clarification,’ where the democratisation of information would serve as a universal solvent for ignorance. But despite this unprecedented availability, it has rarely been so difficult to form a coherent understanding of what is actually happening in the world. The problem is not ignorance in the classical sense. The contemporary public is not uninformed; on the contrary, it is hyper-informed.” (03/10/26)
“Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic. All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of the ayatollahs. In other words, these were gruesome people, but they didn’t necessarily have a competent military.” (03/10/26)
“Most commentators are of the view that what prevents the attainment of price stability is the deviation of the policy interest rate such as the federal funds rate from the neutral interest rate also known as the natural interest rate. The natural interest rate, it is held, is the one that is consistent with stable prices and a balanced economy. What is required then is that Fed policy makers successfully direct the federal funds rate towards the natural interest rate. … How is one to implement this framework of thinking? The main problem here is that the natural interest rate cannot be observed. How can one tell whether the market interest rate is above or below the natural interest rate?” (03/10/26)
“It’s been just over a week since the United States and Israel decapitated the despotic regime in Iran, and while it may seem longer – they have been attacking us for 47 years, almost unanswered – the idea that this will be a ‘forever war’ or even a prolonged event is absurd. If you are inclined to believe that and can actually see the future, slip me some winning lottery numbers, won’t you? Since you aren’t psychic, maybe calm down or stop lying. I had no idea how endangered strawmen were until I saw Megyn Kelly rolling several out every single day to avoid criticizing her ‘friend’ Candace Owens for accusing her other ‘friend,’ Erika Kirk, of being involved in the murder of her husband, among other things. What some people will do for success …” (03/10/26)
Source: Niskanen Center
by Robin S Engel & Jennifer Cherkauskas
“In recent years, de-escalation training has become a key approach in law enforcement, providing officers with tactics, skills, and tools to better manage interactions with the public. This focus reflects growing community and law enforcement interest in resolving conflicts and handling challenging, often emotionally charged interactions with members of the public more effectively than in the past, particularly when encountering individuals in crisis. Proponents of de-escalation training argue that it equips officers with enhanced skills to resolve conflicts in highly confrontational situations without the use of force or less severe force (Oliva et al., 2010). Others, however, have raised concerns about the use of de-escalation tactics, suggesting that the training increases officers’ risk of injury by encouraging slower and less effective responses to potentially volatile situations than the operational responses of traditional policing …” (03/10/26)
