“The Forbes 400 may only own 4 percent of U.S. wealth; but the New York Times found that 300 billionaires accounted for 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in the 2024 election. And these are only reported, cash donations. Include other forms of influence — exemplified by Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his conversion of the former public square into a site that elevates extreme right-wing propaganda — and it’s obvious that the malign political influence of a handful of the ultra-rich is much bigger than even those stunningly large donations suggest. Now the Times reports that Musk is giving even more money in an attempt to help Republicans stave off midterm disaster than he gave in 2024 …” (10/13/26)
“Just after midnight on New Year’s Day 2024, a man and his two children stood near the harbor in the Danish town of Gråsten, watching fireworks over the water a short walk from the house where the children had been living. … masked men rushed the family and knocked the father, then forty-nine, to the ground. The same witness described one child being loaded into a car while the other fought back, held by two men who carried it by the limbs. … They were carried more than eight hundred kilometers south to a farm in Baden-Württemberg and held in a mobile home until their mother arrived to collect them …. The men she is accused of hiring were not ordinary criminals. The prosecution’s case and the testimony of the operatives themselves describe an operation brokered by the former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service and carried out by veterans of Israel’s.” (10/13/26)
“Australia tried to end smoking with punitive taxes. Instead, it created a lucrative trade for smugglers and a wave of violent attacks on retailers.” (10/13/26)
“Since the 2016 Russiagate fiasco, it has become standard practice among Western elites, especially in Europe, to blame every unwelcome election result — and above all every ‘populist’ rebuke to their rule — on Russian ‘disinformation’ and ‘interference’. The campaign has escalated dramatically since 2022. We are told that Russia has for years been running a vast influence operation aimed at manipulating helpless voters. Yet the evidence that this operation has reached, let alone swayed, any meaningful number of them is scant to say the least.” (10/12/26)
“The bowl-cut leftist in Texas, James Talarico, came off the milk carton and returned to the world of the living over the weekend. Where he was remains a mystery, as does why he was gone. What isn’t a mystery is why the corporate media didn’t really cover the story much or question anything related to a candidate in the highest-profile Senate election in the country disappearing for almost two weeks. The ‘official story’ is that Talarico, a very odd person to begin with, simply had the flu. I’ve had the flu, and it’s not fun. It also doesn’t put people in bed for two weeks and rob you of the ability to make any public appearances, if only via video chat. … Was he at a mental health facility for inpatient treatment after a breakdown?” [editor’s note: Obviously not, or he and Hunter would likely have been roomies – TLK] (10/13/26)
“Civil society, for Locke, begins with a surrender. In the state of nature, anyone may punish a wrong done to the community. In society, that power passes to a common authority, and only the sovereign may avenge public wrongs. Blackstone put the same idea in the language of the common law: private wrongs are the injured party’s to redress, public wrongs are the Crown’s. The Framers absorbed the distinction and gave it a specific constitutional home: ‘The executive Power,’ Article II begins, ‘shall be vested in a President.’ One pocket of private prosecution, however, survives that settlement. … Under the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions, a private plaintiff or ‘relator’—with no injury of her own, no office, and no constitutional oath—may sue in the name of the United States, litigate the government’s claim, and keep up to 30 percent of what she recovers.” (10/13/26)
“In these times of runaway public debt and perennial crisis in public finances, the wealth tax is a bad idea that just won’t go away. Just a year ago, the prudent Swiss rejected a steep inheritance tax. France—thanks to political machinations in a hung Parliament, rather than deep conviction or prudence—rejected the resuscitation of its failed wealth taxes (1982-1987 and 1989-2012). The UK floated a similar proposal, which went nowhere. Since 2022, Spain has had a ‘temporary solidarity tax on big fortunes’. Alas, this isn’t just a European game. … Perhaps the main problem is that bad policy proposals are being driven by bad economics, with the imprimatur of high-profile scholars.” (10/12/260
“In September, after months of negotiations and to much fanfare, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a major package of energy reforms. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) has been enthusiastically championed by luminaries of the ‘Abundance’ movement, since parts of the bill would ease regulatory bottlenecks that hinder new energy projects. Economic populists on the left have not embraced the bill in the same way, though they should. BAAJA would take meaningful steps to prevent unpopular corporate interests—namely, utility companies—from hindering the transition to cheaper, cleaner energy sources.” (10/13/26)
“Congress shouldn’t need a lecture on why putting Russ Vought’s deputy in charge of its watchdog is a terrible idea. Well, here we are. The White House is considering Eric Ueland as comptroller general, head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Ueland serves as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, under Vought. The administration whose conduct GAO has repeatedly found unlawful now wants one of its senior officials to run the institution that scrutinizes that conduct. This is a terrible idea.” (10/12/260
“First, let me say that this prize is long overdue. In 2009, I asked my PhD advisor, Miles Kimball, who was the greatest living macroeconomist. Without hesitation, he answered ‘Bob Hall’, and said he would be very surprised if Hall didn’t win the Nobel at some point. Hall’s work is breathtakingly broad; if you want good summaries, I recommend Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen (as usual). As for Michael Woodford, everyone I know assumed that if New Keynesian macro ever did get the prize, Woodford would be included, as he literally wrote the book on it. But anyway, let’s talk about New Keynesian economics — what it is, how it came about, why it’s important, and why it didn’t get a Nobel until now.” (10/13/26)
