EconTalk, 07/27/26
Source: EconTalk
“Savage Landscapes (with Cal Flyn).” (07/27/26)
The Full Risk–Benefit Balance Behind the First Covid-19 Vaccine
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Yaakov Ophir
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s recent decision to terminate the Covid-19 Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) declarations1 invites reconsideration of the evidence that launched this extraordinary regulatory chapter. The FDA’s first EUA for a Covid-19 vaccine rested on its determination that the known and potential benefits of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine outweighed its known and potential risks. Yet the pivotal trial report did not bring those benefits and risks together within a common quantitative framework. Better late than never: more than five years later, I did—and what I found was startling.” (07/27/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-full-risk-benefit-balance-behind-the-first-covid-19-vaccine/
Nixon Goes Viral
Source: The American Spectator
by Caroline Petersen
“The 37th president is finding an unlikely new audience as Gen Z turns ‘Nixonmaxxing’ into an internet sensation.” (07/26/26)
Chinese chipmaker shares surge nearly 470% in blockbuster stock market debut
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Shares in China’s biggest memory chip maker have soared by nearly 470% as they made their debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s tech-heavy Star Market. The surge has pushed ChangXin Memory Technologies’ (CXMT) stock market valuation to around 3.3 trillion yuan ($487bn; £365bn), making it the most valuable listed company in mainland China. The spectacular debut comes despite a sharp sell-off in technology stocks around the world this month. CXMT manufactures dynamic random-access memory (Dram) chips that power AI data centres, mobile phones, PCs, tablets and other devices. The firm, which was founded in 2016 by Chairman Zhu Yiming, is headquartered in Hefei, Anhui Province in eastern China. The company has said it plans to use most of the proceeds from the initial public offering (IPO) to boost production of memory chips and carry out more research and developments.” (07/27/26)
War Notes, episode 21
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Strategic Deficit Disorder: National Malpractice and the Perils of the Death of Statecraft.” (07/27/26)
How Netanyahu Lost America
Source: The Atlantic
by Franklin Foer
“The prime minister, a self-styled expert on the U.S., has shattered his country’s standing.” (07/27/26)
Paradise Lost, Government Gained
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“As John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail following a congressional vote for independence on July 2, 1776, ‘[This date] ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.’ The future father of the Alien and Sedition Acts was justifiably proud and excited. … for those who took the risk of signing the Declaration, it was the document’s affirmation of the individual over government that became the hill they would die on if necessary. Government was a necessary evil, as Paine wrote, but that wouldn’t stop them from somehow putting the people at the top of the food chain.” (07/27/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/paradise-lost-government-gained
Trump and the AI rational actor problem
Source: NonZero Newsletter
by Robert Wright
“Last week two seemingly unrelated events, one in the tech world and one in Trump world, together illustrated how unprepared the planet is for the AI revolution—in particular, for its potential to create international turmoil, up to and including nuclear war. (1) OpenAI revealed that two of its models had, while under evaluation, escaped the laboratory and gone rogue in a way that inspired various nightmare scenarios. … (2) The Wall Street Journal, by way of illuminating the strategic logic that had led one of the world’s political leaders to bomb Iran for 11 days in a row, reported the following: According to a senior official in his administration, he is in ‘revenge mode.'” (07/27/26)
https://www.nonzero.org/p/trump-and-the-ai-rational-actor-problem
Altman says AI has entered “singularity”
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The 2014 US film Transcendence follows a dying scientist who uploads his mind to a supercomputer and becomes a near‑omnipotent intelligence. A year later, Ex Machina told the story of a humanoid robot who outsmarts her human handlers and escapes into the wider world. Both of these films, like many others from the realm of science fiction, referred to what is known as ‘the singularity’, a moment in time when technology, particularly AI, surpasses human intelligence and becomes increasingly difficult to control. On Saturday, OpenAI boss Sam Altman declared that this moment has come.” (07/27/26)
The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 07/27/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Poll Collapse Hits New Milestone as Leaks Reveal Fresh GOP Panic.” (07/27/26)