Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman

“In a recent interview with Nathan Goodman of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Professor Michael Clemens, a GMU specialist in migration economics, put forth ‘a strange and striking fact about the world economy.’ A lower-skilled person’s location in the world can make a significant difference in how much wealth he creates, not just for himself but for society in general. According to Clemens, few people appreciate that, say, a poor shoeshiner in Haiti could earn far more money doing the same work in a wealthy American city because his customers, who are rich by world and historical standards, have much to gain by paying the Haitian to free up their time. By the law of comparative advantage, even a CEO who can shine shoes better than anyone would benefit from paying the shoeshiner.” (10/03/25)

https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/10/tgif-free-movement-inreases-wealth.html

Source: Reason
by Matthew Petti

“The U.S. government doesn’t want you to read what Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has to say. In July 2025, the State Department announced that it was going to freeze her assets for her ‘lawfare that targets U.S. and Israeli persons.’ … The U.S. government’s attempts to stop the report from being published in the 
first place make it especially worth reading.
Politicians have long wanted to erode Americans’ right to vote with their wallets, and they’ve used boycotts of Israel as a test case to introduce wide-ranging anti-boycott laws. By accusing the United Nations of ‘lawfare’ for simply printing a report, the government is attacking the right of consumers and investors to hear information that lets them make politically conscious decisions.” (for publication 11/25)

https://reason.com/2025/10/04/the-report-the-u-s-government-doesnt-want-you-to-read/

Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner

“The idea of a wealth tax on society’s richest people is suddenly in vogue, thanks to the political stalemate in France. Economist Gabriel Zucman, who divides his time between Berkeley and Paris, has proposed a wealth tax that maxes out at 2 percent, on France’s top 0.1 percent of households, just 1,800 people, whose wealth exceeds 100 billion euros, about $118 billion. So highly concentrated is wealth in France that the tax would bring in between $15 billion and $25 billion annually, enough to substantially reduce France’s huge budget of close to 6 percent of GDP without unpopular budget cuts. More than anywhere else, France poses that stark choice. … What gives the Zucman tax special resonance at this moment is that three French governments have fallen in the past year over demands for cuts in popular social spending.” (10/03/25)

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-10-03-taxing-rich-emmanuel-macron-france/

Source: The Erick Erickson Show
by Eric-Woods Erickson

“The President of the United States chose to start a trade war, convincing his supporters that other countries were onerously taxing American imports, ignoring the special exemptions made for the United States in many of the laws. Those other nations have responded by buying elsewhere. China, the largest buyer of American soybeans, has decided to snub our farmers. So now you and I will pay American farmers for the soybeans they cannot sell because of the President’s trade policy. ‘But they’ll use the tariff money,’ you say. Except they cannot under American law. … The President will instead find money in the Department of Agriculture budget that he can divert from other purposes and give it to the farmers who would prefer to sell the crops they grew, but now cannot because of the President’s stupid tariffs. Well done, everybody.” (10/03/25)

https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/this-is-stupid