Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm

“One danger of nationalism, Friedrich Hayek warned in 1960, was the ‘bridge’ it provides ‘from conservatism to collectivism.’ ‘To think in terms of ‘our’ industry or resource,’ he wrote, ‘is only a short step away from demanding that these national assets be directed in the national interest.’ That’s a short step that President Donald Trump has eagerly taken. In the first nine months of his second term in office, the president has overseen a giant government leap into the boardrooms of strategically important businesses. … Trump would not be the first leader to believe that greater state control of key industries and economic sectors would translate into better growth and stronger security. But from Soviet Russia to modern China, the best parallels come from authoritarian regimes rather than American presidencies.” (for publication 01/26)

https://reason.com/2025/12/02/republican-socialism/

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem

“At its base, economic fascism is a form of capitalism, not socialism. It has always been this way, though many leading promoters of free markets today wish it wasn’t. But fascism has native-born citizenship in capitalism, in private property, and not in state property socialism. Fascism’s private property DNA can’t be denied. There are many words to describe statism generally, as well as words to describe our capitalist system that has been corrupted by parasitic billionaires. These include cronyism, fascism, corporatism, plutocracy, and kleptocracy (this latter one, admittedly, can apply to socialism or capitalism). We don’t have to shoe-horn socialism into the role.” (12/02/25)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/billionaires-not-socialists-are-the-biggest-threat-to-the-free-market

Source: EconLog
by Tyler Watts & Joel Watts

“The economics of housing affordability is very straightforward. If prices have gone up, either demand has shifted right, supply has shifted left, or some combination of the two. While supply constraints are the major culprit in the affordability problem, we want to acknowledge that buyers are partly responsible for the market shifts that we’ve seen — it takes two to tango. Housing is a normal good with a long-run income elasticity of demand close to one, meaning housing demand rises in tandem with household income growth. To bring prices down, we need builders to shift the housing supply curve ‘out and right’ by a larger factor than buyers are shifting the demand curve.” (12/02/25)

https://www.econlib.org/econlog/barriers-to-affordable-housing/

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“The Trump administration’s drive to end the war in Ukraine – initially under a plan that favored Moscow’s terms – has hit a big speed bump: American allies in Europe are demanding that Russia be held accountable for war crimes, such as the abduction of Ukrainian children and the execution of prisoners of war. For Ukrainians, real peace demands at least truth-telling if not justice for such violations of international law. For Europe, too, any deal that wipes the slate clean for Russia ‘would be sowing the seeds of the next round of aggression and the next invasion,’ said Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for justice and democracy. ‘We cannot give up on the rights of the victims of Russian aggression and Russian crimes,’ he told Politico.” (12/02/25)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/1202/Pinning-a-Ukraine-peace-to-principles

Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher

“A president killing boaters on specious claims of ‘narcoterrorism’ while pardoning major drug traffickers should be a major scandal.” (12/02/25)

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/12/02/trumps-hypocrisy-drug-trafficking/