Source: The Daily Economy
by Kimberlee Josephson
“Fair trade, organic, reef-safe, rainforest friendly, cruelty-free: are ethical labels useful signals, or simply morality as marketing?” (06/12/26)
Source: Washington Post
“Gene Shalit, a movie critic and arts reporter for the ‘Today’ show over four decades who was known for his puffy hair, oversized handlebar mustache and affection for groan-inducing puns, has died. He was 100. Shalit’s family announced the death Friday to NBC News, saying in a statement that he ‘passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.'” (06/12/26)
Source: Heartland Institute
‘Godzilla El Niño is Coming!” (06/12/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/climate-energy-and-the-election-the-climate-realism-show-181/
Source: EconLog
by John Phelan
“When Winston Churchill was named Chancellor in November 1924, he is said to have assumed it was the largely ceremonial post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was as surprised as anyone, given his lack of interest in economics, to find that it was Chancellor of the Exchequer, constitutionally the second most powerful office in the British government. ‘I was surprised,’ he wrote, ‘and the Conservative Party dumbfounded.’ The controversy that would follow Churchill’s tenure has implications for policy debates today. It all has to do with macroeconomics and exchange rates: how they affect trade and development, whether they should be fixed or floating, and the problems these questions create for policymakers. In the short term, the decisions Churchill made led to the General Strike of 1926, and these debates continue to echo in the longer term.” (06/12/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/churchill-keynes-and-the-general-strike-at-100
Source: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus
by David Beckworth
“Why the Friedman Rule Alone Cannot Determine the Optimal Size of the Fed’s Balance Sheet.” ()6/12/26)
https://macroeconomicpolicynexus.substack.com/p/missing-the-forest-for-the-trees
Source: New York Post
“President Trump is hosting UFC fighters on the White House lawn Sunday night but the real battle may be on the streets of Geneva, where 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Switzerland’s second largest city to protest the G7 summit. Geneva essentially shut down on Sunday. Businesses closed and boarded up their windows. Anti-protester wire fencing was raised around the streets. And police vans took their places on corners, with officers wearing riot gear in preparation. Trump arrives at the G7 on Monday. He, like most world leaders, will arrive at Geneva’s airport before traveling to the summit location in nearby Evian, France. French and Swiss authorities shut down 27 border crossings on Sunday to keep the protesters away from the small spa-town on the shores of Lake Geneva where Trump and the other world leaders will stay.” (06/14/26)
Source: The Bulwark
“The vice president of the United States called a meeting in the Situation Room last year to discuss the administration’s cover-up of the Epstein files. Never mind that there were allegations in the files that Trump had had sex with an underage girl in Epstein’s child trafficking ring — and which somehow involved Trump’s alleged nipple fetish. The Epstein victims and the underlying crimes were not a priority in the meeting; getting Ghislaine or Vance on a friendly podcast was.” (06/12/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Joshua Villanueva
“Observers could easily dismiss Pope Leo XIV’s ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ as just another document on artificial intelligence. But under the surface lies a deeper question: whether modern political elites still have both the ability and the moral clarity to place restraints on power.” (06/12/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Robert C Koehler
“Suddenly my cynicism vanished and things started making sense… America started making sense, from past to present. I was already in the process of writing this column — hey, the nation’s 250th birthday is coming up — and had never felt more lost. Where, where, where am I going with this? What am I trying to say? My words had no core, no soul. I felt like I had given myself the random rubble of a bombed-out building to write about. Then a friend sent me a link to a New York Times opinion piece. I decided to give it a quick read. I don’t necessarily trust the Times. It can be smugly wrong. But I took a look — it was by literary critic A.O. Scott — and I couldn’t stop reading it.” (06/14/26)
Source: Reuters
“A Spanish High Court judge investigating former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for suspected corruption has opened a separate probe over jewellery found during a search of his office, the court said on Friday. Zapatero, prime minister from 2004 to 2011, remains a leading figure in the main ruling Socialist Party and the graft allegations — which he has denied — have added to pressure on the government following a series of corruption scandals. Investigating judge Jose Luis Calama said the jewellery items seized during the May 19 search, provisionally valued at about €1.3 million ($1.5 million), currently lack documented proof of origin. He said the possession of high-value assets without clear fiscal traceability could indicate possible tax evasion or smuggling offences, citing the absence of customs documents or evidence that import duties had been paid.” (06/12/26)