Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Matthew Hisrich
“A refrain in the television series Foundation is that, in the grand scheme of history, individuals and individual actions do not matter. Amusingly, the focus of the series is on individuals and individual actions. As it turns out, the lives of individuals make for more compelling storytelling than long arcs of history. Show creators David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman were wise in this regard to deviate from Isaac Asimov’s source material. But the tactic simultaneously undermines the central premise of Foundation as a concept while also revealing two fundamental truths about human existence: individuals matter and we cannot predict the future.” (11/19/25)
“The Constitution’s nondelegation principle limits Congress’s ability to delegate congressional powers to other entities. The principle is a crucial and inherent feature of our Constitution, which vests only specific powers in specific federal branches. Article I of the Constitution vests ‘all legislative powers herein granted’ in Congress, Article II vests ‘the executive power’ in the president, and Article III vests ‘the judicial power of the United States’ in the federal judiciary. By limiting Congress’s ability to delegate its legislative powers to other entities, the nondelegation principle helps courts maintain the constitutional separation of powers. Unfortunately, the federal judiciary has not done a great job at enforcing the nondelegation principle.” (11/19/25)
“In democracies all across the world, the party system appears unhealthy: Trust in parties is low, partisan antagonism is high, and elections feel existential instead of routine. Many countries’ equivalents of the Democrats and Republicans — parties that have been dominant at least since World War II — are suffering similar decline. Some are on the precipice of extinction. Populist parties are ascending seemingly everywhere. The synchronized collapse of mainstream parties around the world shows that what is happening in America is unexceptional — and, as a result, that many prominent theories for the American electorate’s malaise and discontent are incomplete.” (11/19/25)
“Gerrymandering has been a staple of the Republic since its beginning. The practice has such a storied tradition that it is named after Elbridge Gerry, one of our founding fathers who served as vice president under President James Madison. For decades, leftists attempted to outlaw partisan gerrymandering. Justice Anthony Kennedy could not make up his mind on the issue, so it languished until he retired. Fortunately for the Constitution, President Trump replaced Justice Kennedy — the Court’s swing vote for over a dozen years — with solid constitutionalist Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In 2019, thanks to Kavanaugh’s addition, the Court upheld partisan gerrymandering in Rucho v. Common Cause. Legislatures cannot gerrymander based on race, but they can do so based on partisanship.” (11/19/25)
“When U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick blasted the Justice Department’s handling of the James Comey case on Monday, he did not address the merits of the perjury and obstruction charges against the former FBI director. But the government misconduct that Fitzpatrick described was largely a product of the reckless rush to deliver the grudge-driven indictment that President Donald Trump demanded. … These missteps, which Fitzpatrick said might prove serious enough to require dismissal of the indictment, did not happen in a vacuum. They were the consequences of Trump’s determination to get Comey, regardless of the facts or the law.” (11/19/25)
“One answer to why Reinventing Government failed is that its authors misunderstood the problem, or preferred not to understand it. In this view, the problem is not that good civil servants are trapped in bad systems. It is that civil servants constitute a ‘deep state’ that undermines elected officials and does the bidding of an unaccountable elite. Whatever the merits of this position, the second Trump administration has advanced a breathtakingly extreme version of it.” (11/19/25)
“Remind me again why any reasonable person expects the federal government to obey the law. The Trump administration this week gravely imperiled the nation’s water supply by curtailing federal regulations over dry land. Or at least that’s the story the media is hustling. A Washington Post headline epitomized the fretting: ‘Trump proposal would limit protections for U.S. waterways’ by narrowing the definition of wetlands. The Post did not mention that mere puddles or land that is dry 350 days a year have been categorized as ‘waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act.” (11/19/25)
“The FAA’s centralized monopoly makes American airspace hostage to congressional dysfunction. When budget negotiations collapse, so does air travel: controllers go unpaid, certifications halt, and the entire system seizes up. Regulatory capture turns these risks into body counts. During the 737 MAX disaster, the FAA delegated oversight to Boeing’s own engineers — 346 people died in two crashes over five months without independent review. Meanwhile, startups like Connect Airlines collapsed after months waiting for approvals that never came. The FAA is designed for stagnation, favoring industry giants with bailouts and expedited certifications while strangling startups with delays — protecting incumbents and gatekeeping competition. Canada once faced similar challenges. Then, in 1996, it privatized air traffic control. Nav Canada now operates on user fees, not tax revenue, and it delivers demonstrably superior performance.” (11/19/25)
