Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Arman Sidhu

“For a small-scale gold miner in Uganda, the question of where to sell has just been answered for him. Gold has surpassed coffee as Uganda’s largest export, and as of last month, the country’s central bank is positioning itself as the dominant legal buyer for nearly all of it. Late in April, the Bank of Uganda launched a three-year gold-buying program that registers it as a gold dealer purchasing directly from licensed Ugandan miners through contracts with two refiners.” (05/13/26)

https://fee.org/articles/ugandas-gold/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle

“Home prices and financing costs are still high, but several indicators suggest the market has moved past peak distortion.” (05/13/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/is-housing-less-affordable-than-ever-sort-of/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Antón Chamberlin

“Americans seldom experience war directly — World War II was the last time a war reached US soil. Since then, our wars have been experienced much more indirectly. No ration books appeared during Vietnam, no mass retooling of factories happened for Desert Storm, and daily life seems largely unchanged despite a decades-long War on Terror. The Iran War seems to be the same, at least in these respects. All wars still impose costs on ordinary Americans, of course; they simply arrive in quieter ways. Enter every trip to the gas station since February 28.” (05/13/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/estimating-the-iran-wars-effect-on-us-gasoline-prices/

Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan

“It’s not exactly a mystery why Sean Duffy, President Donald Trump’s secretary of Transportation, seems so befuddled and embittered about the backlash that followed his May 8 reveal that American corporations funded a five-part reality television series about a “Great American Road Trip” for his family. … Television shows have sponsors. And the Duffy family road trip has some of the biggest corporations paying the bills. And some of them are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Trump’s administration has always seemed at least as interested, if not more interested, in content generation than in governing. Why do boring public servants work when you can be an influencer on television and social media? But the look-at-me crowd gets pretty huffy when they receive actual scrutiny.” (05/13/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/05/13/sean-duffy-great-american-road-trip-gas-prices-economy/90044120007/

Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin

“Donald Trump has apparently not figured out that Iran holds all the cards. Still fixated on the notion that the ‘winner’ of the war is the side that blows up the most stuff, he remains convinced he can dictate terms to Iran. But the Iranians hold the Strait of Hormuz and have remained convinced that Trump has no stomach for more military action. In any event, they are confident they can sustain any further U.S. attacks. Naturally, then, Iran is sticking to demands to keep control of the Strait, obtain sanctions relief, and even extract reparations from the U.S. … Trump’s trip to China may only deepen his predicament.” (05/13/26)

https://www.contrariannews.org/p/iran-humiliation-will-only-embolden