Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“The United States, like most other countries, use a method of double-entry accounting to track certain aggregate statistics known as National Income Accounting. One of the statistics tracked is the balance of trade. The balance of trade reports the difference between imports and exports. … The connotations of the words ‘surplus’ and ‘deficit’ (coupled with the accounting conventions of pluses and minus) give the impression to those who do not understand the balance of trade that deficits are bad while surpluses are good. But, digging a little into the accounting shows that 1) ‘deficits’ and ‘surpluses’ are value-free and 2) referring to these as ‘trade deficits/surpluses’ is something of a misnomer.” (05/14/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/the-trade-deficit-is-a-misnomer
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jonathan Turley
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D-NY] is fast becoming the greatest fabulist since Aesop. Recently, Ocasio-Cortez insisted that true billionaires are a capitalist myth since ‘you can’t earn a billion dollars.’ However, her greatest work of fiction may be her insistence that the Framers fought against billionaires and would have joined her and other socialists in seeking to eradicate them today. Bertrand Russell once noted that ‘there is something feeble and a little contemptible’ about those ‘who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.’ The American left has long peddled such ‘comfortable myths’ as the wealthy ‘not paying their fair share’ of taxes. The top 1% of income earners pay over 40% of federal taxes, and that percentage goes up to 70% for the top 10%.” (05/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jonathan-turley-aocs-war-billionaires-twists-americas-birth-socialist-myth
Source: Freedom’s Phoenix
“Dr Mary Ruwart (Chair of Liberty International and Secretary of the Foundation for a Free Society) on a Longevity & Freedom Webinar (June 13; September), Liberty International Journal, LI at Freedom Fest on Friday, July 10 in Las Vegas.” (05/14/26)
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/395626-2026-05-13-2026-05-14-ernest-hancock-interviews-dr-mary-ruwart-mp3.htm
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
“The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia Bar over its efforts to discipline Trump administration lawyers, escalating the department’s feud with legal ethics authorities. The lawsuit defends Jeffrey Clark, a government lawyer in the first Trump administration who sought to undo the results of the 2020 presidential race, and Ed Martin, a current senior Justice Department official. The suit was filed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, and Stanley E. Woodward Jr., the No. 3 official at the Justice Department…. The lawsuit centers on the long-running battle over the D.C. Bar’s effort to disbar Clark, an environmental lawyer who had no formal role in investigating elections, over his push to promote Trump’s baseless assertions of fraud in Joe Biden’s electoral victory in 2020.” (05/14/26)
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/trump-administration-lawyers-ethics-bar-20260514.html
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Folly of Trump’s Trade Summit in China.” (05/15/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zjzIUX3pwc
Source: Washington Monthly
by David Masciotra
“John Chrastka of EveryLibrary, which fights for library budgets and against book bans, discusses libraries, their central role in our society, censorship — and those drag-queen story hours.” (05/14/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/14/library-book-bans-limited-government/
Source: US News & World Report
“President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he issued an executive order to restrict voters’ ability to cast ballots by mail, attorneys for Democrats and civil rights groups told a federal judge on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols didn’t rule from the bench on the plaintiffs’ request for an order blocking officials from implementing Trump’s March 31 order, his second related to elections since winning his second term in the White House. The case is one of multiple lawsuits filed to block the order on the grounds that only states and Congress, and not the president, are given power under the Constitution to decide how elections are run.” (05/14/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-05-14/lawyers-urge-judge-to-block-trump-order-that-would-create-eligible-voter-list-limit-mail-ballots
Source: The Daily Economy
by Walter Donway
“Organizations often mistake measurable activity for meaningful achievement. AI productivity metrics confuse computation costs with added value.” (05/14/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/how-not-to-measure-ai-productivity/
Source: Ottumwa Courier
“Large crowds of ultranationalist Jews gathered Thursday at the foot of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, chanting racist slogans like ‘Death to Arabs’ and ‘May your villages burn’ as they began an annual parade through the Palestinian areas of the Old City, a procession often characterized by violence. The young, mostly-male group did their chanting under the eye of Israeli police, who had barred off parts of the plaza for journalists to cover the event. Normally a bustling marketplace for Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, the plaza was devoid of Palestinians as the march began. The march commemorates what Israel calls Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war.” (05/14/26)
https://www.ottumwacourier.com/news/national_news/ultranationalist-jews-chant-racist-slogans-during-annual-march-into-jerusalems-old-city/article_4c4fed50-2b1a-5b97-9218-17890590462b.html
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich, Lori, and Riley discuss the Jeremy Kauffman arrest, whether or not words are actually hurtful or rise to the level of ‘fighting words,’ and how those relate to this HEADLINE: Man known for racially derogatory livestreams charged with attempted murder after Tennessee shooting.” (05/14/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/05/15/the-anarchist-experience-580/
