Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Snider

“On September 15, 1970, Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to ‘make the economy [of Chile] scream.’ (CIA Director Richard Helms’s actual note of the conversation can be seen here). But it wasn’t the economy that screamed: it was people. ‘The economy’ is an abstraction. The concrete reality of sanctions and embargos is people who are starving. Driving people to starvation has become the foreign policy of the United States.” (06/16/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/economic-warfare-militarized-diplomacy-are-brutal-and-malfunctioning-tools/

Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis

“Historian Will Durant on the ancient Persian empire: ‘[It is not] natural that nations diverse in language, religion, morals, and traditions should long remain united; there is nothing organic in such a union, and compulsion must repeatedly be applied to maintain the artificial bond. In its two hundred years of empire, Persia did nothing to lessen this heterogeneity, these centrifugal forces; she was content to rule a mob of nations, and never thought of making them into a state…’ (Our Oriental Heritage, 382). I have no objection to trying to prevent dangerous governments, run by questionably civilized radicals, from having nuclear weapons. Actually, I’d prefer to see nuclear weapons completely eradicated from this planet. But unfortunately, humans have this overwhelming lust to kill each other, and some, like communists and other barbarians, like to do it in massive numbers, when possible. So, civilized people must be protected against such.” (06/16/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/06/16/who-really-wonor-is-winningthe-american-persian-war-n2677787

Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders

“You’ve heard of a feedback loop. The thermostat is a classic example. It senses the room, compares the reading to the target, and then acts to close the gap. Output bends back to become input. The system corrects itself because information about how it’s doing reaches the part that can do something about it. Now consider a particular kind of feedback loop, the kind bound up with human performance. Call it an accountability loop. Its defining feature is that the person responsible for an outcome feels its consequences. Do well, and good things follow. Fail, and the failure lands on you. The signal returns to its source.” (06/16/26)

https://underthrow.substack.com/p/accountability-loops

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler

“For the last couple of years, the EU has been on a mission to make European businesses more competitive through a process it calls ‘simplification.’ This means slashing red tape — especially in the form of reporting and compliance obligations — by 25% for all companies, and at least 35% for SMEs. Backed by Germany, Italy, and the Nordic countries, the project is said to have already saved EU companies €15 billion in administrative costs, almost halfway to the €37.5 billion savings goal set by Brussels for 2029.” (06/16/26)

https://fee.org/articles/cutting-the-red-tape/

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“It’s been more than 100 days since the United States and Israel launched their first wave of attacks against Iran. With Iran and the U.S. now agreeing to sign a memorandum of understanding on Friday, it will likely be another 60 days before a conclusive end to the war is in sight. Given the thorny issues between the two countries – especially the still-unsettled matter of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program – finalizing a peace deal in the 60-day ceasefire window is a considerable challenge. If the envisioned ceasefire holds, and oil shipments move smoothly through the Strait of Hormuz, a longer period to work out all the details might not be a bad thing for what one analyst described as ‘the slow institutional work of conflict transformation.'” (06/15/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0615/How-Pakistan-proved-its-mediation-skills