Source: Ludwig Mises Institute
by Alejandro A Tagliavini

“We have long normalized the idea that economics is the use of scarce resources. The problem is that, if resources are scarce, the only option left is to decide how to allocate them, leading to a real struggle — sometimes violent — between the parties to see who gets what little there is. … Creation is infinite; it has no limits as long as the order of the cosmos—the order of nature that predates humankind — is respected. In contrast, rationalism, state constructivism, and attempts to impose an ‘order’ that — not arising spontaneously from society — must be coercively imposed using the monopoly on violence that states claim for this purpose clashes with social nature and enters into a conflict that only destroys.” (04/14/26)

https://mises.org/power-market/critical-issue-not-dependence-oil-destruction-caused-states

Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley

“The resignation of Rep. Eric Swalwell [D-CA] came with one of the most spectacular falls in political history. Just days ago, Swalwell was the leading Democratic candidate for governor of California and positioned to be one of two final candidates, with the other a Republican. He expected that, regardless of his unpopularity, California Democrats would never vote for a Republican. Now Swalwell has pulled out of the race, left Congress, and was even tossed out of the home of a billionaire who had been letting him crash there during the scandal. Swalwell continues to deny the allegations against him and has pledged to fight them. For the record, I have been one of Swalwell’s most vocal critics for the last 10 years. Yet while I am not surprised by the allegations, I am surprised by how quickly Swalwell was abandoned by his political patrons in Congress and the unions.” (04/14/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-eric-swalwells-enablers-knew-truth-protected-anyway

Source: Cato Institute
by Stephen Slivinski

“Yesterday, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers issued its annual Economic Report of the President. Like every year, it’s a wide-ranging analysis of several hot-button economic topics. While I can’t speak to the reliability of the analysis in every chapter, one thing that stands out is the chapter on housing supply. Like any policy document written by committee and expected to rationalize even the least justifiable policies of an administration, it doesn’t get everything right. Yet it doesn’t get everything wrong either.” (04/14/26)

https://www.cato.org/blog/what-economic-report-president-gets-wrong-right-about-housing-supply

Source: spiked
by Georgina Mumford

“Trump is not the first president to fall out with the Holy Father. That said, this latest outburst is worlds away from the ‘elegant row’ between Theodore Roosevelt and Pope Pius during the Second World War, or the cordial scolding given to Bill Clinton by Pope John Paul over abortion legislation. Trump’s tantrum comes after months of tension between the White House and the Holy See – where, much to his dismay, religious officials have failed to don their MAGA hats and cheer on America’s war with Iran. … American Catholics – who comprise both 20 per cent of the US population and 22 per cent of those who cast their vote for Trump in 2024 – will no doubt be baffled by Trump’s attacks on the pontiff. Moreover, his AI-powered Jesus impersonation managed to upset even the most enthusiastic of evangelical MAGA loyalists.” (04/14/26)

https://archive.is/E05Rd

Source: The Nation
by Katrina Vanden Heuvel

“There’s money to be made in California this spring, no start-up pitch or buzzy screenplay required. Instead, signatures are one of the state’s most coveted commodities: Campaigns are paying $15 apiece to those willing to collect them. Petition distributors can thank Sergey Brin for this pay bump. In an effort to kill California’s proposed billionaire tax, the Google cofounder and other local tycoons are funding a political group that has hiked the going rate for signatures collected in support of countermeasures. In all, foes of the wealth tax are expected to spend $75 million in their attempt to quash the proposal.” (04/14/26)

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/money-in-politics-billionaires-dark-money-citizens-united-crisis/

Source: Persuasion
by Steven Pinker

“In March 2026, three prominent thinkers died within a day of each other. Lavish obituaries immediately marked the deaths of the always-wrong environmentalist Paul Ehrlich and the often-obscure political philosopher Jürgen Habermas. But for two weeks after the death of Robert Trivers, one of the greatest evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin, not a single major news source had noticed his passing. This despite Trivers’s singular accomplishment of showing how the endlessly fascinating complexities of human relations are grounded in the wellsprings of complex life. And despite the fact that the man’s life was itself an object of fascination. Trivers was no ordinary academic. He was privileged in upbringing but louche in lifestyle, personally endearing but at times obstreperous and irresponsible, otherworldly brilliant but forehead-slappingly foolish.” (04/14/26)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-strange-ways-people-actand-how