EconTalk, 05/11/26
Source: EconTalk
“Thinking Inside the Box (with David Epstein).” (05/11/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/thinking-inside-the-box-with-david-epstein/
Protectionism Won’t Feed North America: Don’t Scrap the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement
Source: The Daily Economy
by Larry Martin
“Calls to weaken or abandon USMCA overlook how interconnected US, Canadian, and Mexican agriculture has become. Trade barriers hurt farmers and families in all three nations.” (05/11/26)
A Polar Plan for Banking
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Alex Rosado
“The word Antarctica brings to mind images of desolation and glaciers, and may even give you goosebumps when thinking of its subzero temperatures. For one American company, the emptiness was an opportunity to bring banking and convenience to a continent once thought to be a buffer to the free market. In 1998, Wells Fargo installed two ATMs at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, an American-run base dedicated to land surveillance, climate research, and the natural sciences. The Station’s population fluctuates between 250 and 1,100 people, depending on the season. With no cities on the continent, the absence of permanent residents makes Antarctic economics a low-growth environment. At face level, having any economic service here sounds like a poor investment. However, the potential in the South Pole’s ATMs doesn’t lie in profit. It arises from observing how little is actually required to sustain a functioning community.” (05/11/26)
Portrait looted by Nazis found in home of Dutch SS leader’s descendants
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A painting stolen from a Jewish art collector by the Nazis during World War Two has been found in the home of descendants of a notorious Dutch SS collaborator, an art detective has said. Portrait of a Young Girl, by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, is believed to have hung for decades in the home of Hendrik Seyffardt’s family, Arthur Brand said. It had belonged to Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who died while fleeing the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, leaving behind a collection of more than 1,000 paintings. The case was brought to Brand’s attention by a man who told him he was a descendant of Seyffardt and that he was ‘disgusted’ to learn his family had kept the artwork for years. Seyffardt was a Dutch general who commanded a Waffen-SS unit of volunteers on the eastern front before he was assassinated by resistance fighters in 1943.” (05/11/26)
Living Under the Weight of Keynes’s Shadow Wealth
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Matt Hisrich
“While reading The Wealth of Shadows — Graham Moore’s excellent historical novel about pre-World War II global finance — I couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of unease regarding the current state of international economics. Set just before the United States enters World War II, the book follows the adventures of a plucky group of Treasury Department employees unofficially working to undermine the German economy while officially maintaining the US position of neutrality. Two figures outside of the US loom large in the narrative — Hjalmar Schacht in Germany and John Maynard Keynes in England. … part of the mystery in Wealth of Shadows is how governments can circumvent the price inflation that comes from excess printing — to have their cake and eat it, too, so to speak.” (05/11/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/living-under-weight-keyness-shadow-wealth
Like Suez Canal for the Brits, Could Strait of Hormuz Spell Doom for US Empire?
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“Empires rise and fall. They do not last forever. Imperial declines follow a gradual shifting of the economic tides, but are also punctuated and defined by critical tipping points. There are many differences between the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the US war on Iran today, but similarities in the larger context suggest that the United States is facing the same kind of ‘end of empire’ moment that the British Empire faced in that historic crisis. In 1956, the British Empire was still resisting independence movements in many of its colonies. The horrors of British Mau Mau concentration camps in Kenya and Britain’s brutal guerrilla war in Malaya continued throughout the 1950s, and, like the United States today, Britain still had military bases all over the world.” (05/11/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/suez-canal-strait-of-hormuz
White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting suspect pleads not guilty in federal court
Source: NBC News
“The man charged with allegedly attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month pleaded not guilty at a Monday arraignment in federal court. Cole Tomas Allen, 31, wearing an orange shirt and trousers, was handcuffed and shackled as he was brought into the courtroom in D.C. federal court. His handcuffs were attached to a chain around his waist, which clanked as he was led to the defense table. Speaking on behalf of Allen, federal public defender Tezira Abe said her client ‘pleads not guilty to all four counts as charged,’ including attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, in connection with the April 25 incident at the Washington Hilton Hotel.” (05/11/26)
The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 05/11/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Old and New Rights | Interview: George Hawley.” (05/11/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/old-and-new-rights-interview-george-hawley/
On the April Jobs Report
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker
“It doesn’t appear as though the jump in energy prices has yet had much effect on the labor market, as the economy added 115,000 jobs in April. Year-over-year wage growth was 3.6 percent, which is likely to be roughly even with the inflation rate that will be reported next week. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 percent, with little change for most demographic groups.” (05/11/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/11/on-the-april-jobs-report/
Democracy, Democrats & the Constitution
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Do senior Democrats not understand how our government is designed? … when something violates the constitution it matters not at all whether it passed with 99.9 percent support or the slightest majority.” (05/11/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/11/cracy-crats-the-const