Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“Risk migrated outside traditional banks, but insolvencies and widening credit spreads are raising questions about leverage and liquidity strain system-wide.” (03/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/worries-spread-in-private-credit-markets/
Source: Foreign Policy
by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
“On Sunday, a fire broke out at a data center in Dubai belonging to Amazon Web Services. The facility was stuck by an object, likely shrapnel from an Iranian drone intercepted by the United Arab Emirates’ air defenses. The incident, which may mark the first time in history that a major company’s cloud data center was damaged in a war, is emblematic of the unprecedented nature of the conflict now unfolding in the Middle East. Far from just another war in the Persian Gulf, this is the first conflict since the Second World War to directly impact cities and facilities that serve as hubs in the globalized economy.” (03/04/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Charles Goyette
“Benjamin Franklin said it best: ‘There never was a good war, or a bad peace.’ Now that war is again underway — the third attack on Iran in two years — people of healthy human consciousness must pray that the destruction and carnage is limited. Yet the trajectory appears to be grim. Wars often progress in unexpected ways. The Persian Gulf region is a tangled spaghetti plate of interests including economic, religious, cultural, and geopolitical. None of our politicians have proved capable of comprehending those interests and foreseeing the consequences of their elective wars.” (03/04/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-empire-of-lies-comes-for-iran
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Michelle Ellner
“On International Working Women’s Day in 2025, Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, read a poem she wrote highlighting the historic role played by Latin American women in the fight against imperialism: ‘We’re not flowers the wind can pluck, / we’re roots of rebel and loyal land, / we’re grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters; / we are woman. / Our blood pulses with the Manuelas, / Luisas, Josefas, Juanas, Cecilias, / Apacuanas, Bartolinas, Eulalias, / Martas, Anas Marías, Barbaritas / and so many others who legacy inspires, / commits, and strengthens us / to continue walking and traveling our path. / And in our hands and chests / a light is on that nobody will ever turn off: / love, peace and liberty.’ One year later, she languishes in a cell in New York City, having been dragged out of her room and kidnapped by US forces on the January 3 attack on Venezuela.” (03/04/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/cilia-flores-first-lady-in-cell
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye
“No, but the rate of growth of spending increases has slowed.” (03/04/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/has-trump-really-cut-federal-spending
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Deborah Palma
“Brazil finds itself at a historical crossroads that demands a rigorous analysis of its institutional structures. The release of the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), record-breaking data from the Impostômetro, and the persistence of an authoritarian labor framework expose a system of economic asphyxiation and moral erosion. The State, under the pretext of protecting the citizen, in reality hinders their initiative, their property, and their future.” (03/04/26)
Source: The New Republic
by Alex Shephard
“Right-wing criticism of Trump’s war has mostly come from familiar MAGA cranks like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson. But it could quickly spiral out of control.” (03/04/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/207311/trump-iran-war-maga-republican-crack-up-just-beginning
Source: Law & Liberty
by Aaron N Coleman
“In his famous draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Thomas Jefferson advised that ‘in questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.’ Jefferson’s rhetorically powerful phrase rested on a simple assumption: that the Constitution constrained federal power. That assumption is understandable. After all, the Constitution is written, and it contains a list of powers. For generations, most Americans have followed Jefferson down this well-worn interpretive path and assumed that enumeration equals limitation. It now appears, however, that we have all been profoundly mistaken.” (03/04/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-nationalist-lost-cause/
Source: The Dispatch
by Alan Jacobs
“One of the favors that chatbots have done for humanities professors is to reveal to us that chatbots are so good at doing the thesis-essay assignment because it has always been an exceptionally formulaic thing. If we engage in a little self-examination, we’ll realize that we like it formulaic, because that reduces the time and mental energy we have to invest in grading. It’s easy to compare any given student’s essay to the template in your mind and quickly see the extent to which it matches or deviates from it. The rise of the chatbots — with their algorithmic pattern-matching, their stochastic parrot behavior — has revealed that students and faculty alike have been, for many decades, functioning in exactly the same way. If we could confront our chatbots the way parents confront their kids about drug use, the bots would surely reply ‘I learned it by watching you!'” (03/04/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/artificial-intelligence-college-essay-teachers-innovation/
Source: Project Liberal
by Oliver Gale
“In the founding principles of liberalism, freedom is not merely the absence of chains; it is the presence of an unguarded space — a space where the individual can think, speak and organise without the omniscient state and its interference. That space has historically been protected by anonymity, especially in the online sphere of discourse. Today, that foundational protection is under substantial threat, more so than before. The new tool for the state to control its subjects is not only a physical prison, but also a digital cage. In this system, mandatory identification is designed to weave into every interaction.” (03/04/26)
https://projectliberal.substack.com/p/digital-id-security-or-big-brother