Why Rent Control Fails: Lessons From New York to Portland

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Tom Wilson

“Housing costs in New York City have reached a level that many people can no longer afford. The response has been to push for more control—limits on rent increases and expanded tenant protections. The intention is clear. However, housing markets respond to incentives, not intentions. Under Zohran Mamdani, New York City is moving further in that direction. The focus is on limiting rent increases, expanding tenant protections, and increasing the role of government in the housing market. The policy has not fully taken effect yet. Once these rules interact with rising costs, the housing market will respond to the incentives. Rent control keeps rents down, but it does not keep costs down for the landlord.” (04/09/26)

https://mises.org/power-market/why-rent-control-fails-lessons-new-york-portland

Government by Settlement

Source: Law & Liberty
by John O McGinnis

“In his piquant memoir, Streetwise, Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, shares an arresting anecdote about the administrative state. The SEC sued Goldman for allegedly misleading investors about the risks of mortgage-backed securities. Blankfein considered the suit meritless but settled for $550 million. ‘You can’t litigate against your regulator. It’s like a Star Trek episode: an alien controls the Enterprise’s bridge and threatens to shut off life support unless the ship surrenders.’ The dilemma for the regulated firm is that even if it wins the suit, its regulating agency has many other ways to make life unpleasant.” (04/09/26)

https://lawliberty.org/government-by-settlement/

The War Is Bad, The Cease-Fire Doesn’t Exist, The Future Is Awful

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“It took not even 24 hours for the tollbooth on the Strait of Hormuz to snap shut. Israel, whose desires to act as a saboteur and trap the United States into the war it desperately wanted us to conduct couldn’t be more obvious, spent Wednesday pounding central Beirut with airstrikes, hitting 100 targets in ten minutes, with at least 112 dead. Iran and the U.S. have very different conceptions of whether Lebanon counts as part of the nascent cease-fire. After Donald Trump confirmed that in his view Israel and Lebanon are in a ‘separate skirmish,’ which conflicts with the view of Pakistan, the country that mediated the dispute, Iran showed its displeasure by closing the strait to oil tankers, and now the Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened military action against ‘aggressors in the region’ (Israel) if the Lebanon attacks continue.” (04/09/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/04/09/iran-war-cease-fire-strait-of-hormuz-oil-shipping-toll/

Palestine: Israeli regime formally approves 34 new illegal squats

Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]

“The security cabinet approved the establishment of 34 new [squats] in a meeting two weeks ago, The Times of Israel has learned. This brings to 103 the total number of new [squats] established or retroactively legalized [sic] by the government since it took office in 2022. Only six new [squats] were formally approved by Israel in the 30 years following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Security cabinet meetings and their decisions are classified, and there has been no official confirmation of the decision by the government.” (04/09/26)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/34-new-west-bank-settlements-formally-approved-by-government/

Flirting with MAGA Money: The Shady RFK-Trump Scheme That Nearly Destroyed the Libertarian Party – Part 2 – The JFC

Source: Jake Porter’s Analysis & Investigations
by Jake Porter

“Desperate to escape a financial death spiral—with revenues plummeting by nearly half since the 2022 Mises Caucus takeover—the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) didn’t just look for donors. They entered into a bizarre, legally questionable financial pact with a candidate who wasn’t even their nominee. Even worse? The party Chair personally enriched herself in the process.” (04/09/26)

https://jakeporter.substack.com/p/flirting-with-maga-money-the-shady-89e