“Should a university strive to be an open society? Many will feel an immediate impulse to answer in the affirmative. Universities should be places of exploration and discovery. They should foster lively intellectual exchange. They should create a space in which people feel emboldened to pursue the truth to surprising or unexpected places, potentially moving against the grain of the surrounding culture. These goods can only be realized in an environment where scholars and students enjoy some measure of freedom. That sounds like an open society. On further reflection, complications arise. … Four faculty members offered their views on whether, and in what ways, the university should be a free society.” (04/02/25)
“With Donald Trump seemingly determined to push the US economy on a path towards autarky, our major trading partners will need to make alternative arrangements. This is especially the case with Canada, since its economy is so closely tied to the US economy.At this point, Mark Carney, the country’s new Prime Minister, knows there is little possibility of dealing with Trump rationally. … Trump’s erratic craziness makes the prospect of a real and lasting deal very dim. Carney has to look to secure stronger trade deals with more stable partners. Europe and Latin America are clearly part of the that story, but China needs to be too, as the world’s largest economy. There are opportunities for major gains from trade with China, especially in the auto sector, which had been thoroughly intertwined with the United States and Mexico.” (04/02/25)
“In a genocidal war that has spiraled into a struggle for political survival, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and the global powers supporting him continue to sacrifice Palestinian lives for political gain.” (04/02/25)
“The stock market has been throwing a temper tantrum over the Trump tariffs. The beatdown could get worse because President Donald Trump is expected to announce another round of import tariffs on Wednesday. The liberal media and Democrats in Congress — many of whom once supported tariffs — are feeding the flames. They hate Trump and want to see him fail. But is the market downgrade of American companies to the tune of roughly 10% a rational response to Trump’s trade restrictions? I am an economist, not a stock market sage, but it is worth a reminder that despite some higher tariffs imposed by Trump in his first term — which caused temporary stock sell-offs — those effects were truly transitory. The market later surged month after month. On average, stocks rose by roughly 60% in four years. Not a bad return.” (04/02/25)
“While most of us are aware that the Constitution prohibits a president from serving more than two terms, some legal scholars have argued that there is a loophole that Trump, despite being twice-elected, could exploit. Unlike his plainly unconstitutional attempt to abolish birthright citizenship for everyone except the children of citizens and green card holders, the third-term question has been a live and serious debate within legal circles for years prior to Trump’s ascent. Now for the good news: The best reading of the Constitution really does rule out a third Trump term. In the end, even the sophisticated legal arguments for allowing a third presidential term depend on exploiting loopholes in a document that isn’t written to exhaustively anticipate and exclude them and therefore, as Chief Justice John Marshall warned us, end up undermining the very foundations of our Republic.” (04/01/25)
“Why am I so sure that Trump is not, as The New York Times assures me, joking when he discusses a third term? Well, for one rather literal-minded reason, because he told NBC News ‘I’m not joking’ in a recent interview. That brings us, of course, into one of the finer political arts of the Trump era: the deciphering of Donald Trump’s sense of humor. The theory here — which has gained surprisingly wide-ranging acceptance — is that Trump’s sense of humor is a kind of carefully calibrated ultrasonic instrument designed to infuriate liberals, whereas his supporters can take everything with an easygoing swagger. … But, like the sort of school bully who’s just kidding right up until the moment he snatches your lunch bag out of your hand (and then assures you afterwards that it was no big deal), Trump’s gags deserve to be taken seriously.” (04/01/25)
“In a small site of special scientific interest about 20 miles northwest of Oxford, a ‘shed’ is being built. Or at least, that was how Jon Thompson, the chief executive of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, described the Sheephouse Wood Bat Protection Structure. … The ‘bat shed’ became the subject of media controversy in 2024 when … Thompson revealed that it, alone, had added £100 million to the bill. It makes a useful starting point for discussing a general question of costs in infrastructure, not just in the UK but in many countries with a similar economic and legal structure. Why do things like the Sheephouse Wood Bat Mitigation Structure seem to happen so often? More to the point, why do they appear to particularly afflict the common law countries?” (04/01/25)
“The business world thought Donald Trump would usher in a boom, only to get chaos and uncertainty. Businesses don’t like to make big plans when everything can change in an instant. That’s why merger activity in the U.S. has fallen by 18 percent in the first quarter of this year, despite the belief that pent-up dealmaking would soar once Biden’s aggressive antitrust enforcers were sidelined. The relative continuity in antitrust enforcement among Trump officials probably also has something to do with it. If a company in this environment is pursuing not one but a series of mergers, you have to wonder why they’d risk it. The reward payout must be significant: for example, moving toward a monopoly of the means by which Americans locate, buy, and pay for a home. Rocket is America’s third-largest mortgage lender, with $1.8 trillion in loans originated.” (04/02/25)
“I used to think that Donald Trump was an ignoramus who didn’t understand the gains from trade. But now I realize that he understands it better than we economists. All we have are our models and our logical reasoning. Trump has experience as a trader in the real world who understands that in every trade, there is a winner and loser. He also understands that when domestic car companies charge low prices to Americans, that’s good, but when foreign car companies charge low prices, that’s bad. … I wasn’t wrong to criticize Kamala Harris for advocating price controls during the presidential campaign. But I’m wrong for having criticized Donald Trump for warning auto companies not to raise prices …. The difference is that Harris is a Democrat and Trump is a Republican and that makes all the difference.” (04/01/25)
“When Donald Trump won his second term, there was much speculation about what it would mean to have a president who started out as essentially a lame duck. ‘After nearly a decade — during which so many in the GOP cowered in fear at the costs of defying Trump — ambitious senators, House members and governors will be contemplating their own futures in a world without him,’ wrote my colleague E.J. Dionne, adding that ‘recognizing the limitations on a Trump presidency is a first step toward holding Trump in check.’ However you would describe what is happening now, no one would argue that Trump has been held in check. Instead, we are witnessing something entirely novel in American political history: the YOLO presidency. … Rather than being constrained by the fact that he can’t run for office again, Trump has been liberated by the fact that he doesn’t need to.” (04/01/25)
