Source: Macroeconomic Policy Nexus
by David Beckworth

“In the sections that follow, I will briefly look at the two different paths being taken by the United States and Europe in their pursuit of digital currencies. To paraphrase poet Robert Frost, there are two roads diverging in the digital currency woods, but unlike Frost’s traveler we get to see both roads taken. The question is which one will make all the difference.” (08/14/26)

https://macroeconomicpolicynexus.substack.com/p/the-digital-currency-road-less-traveled

Source: Liberal Currents
by Toby Buckle

“Living through a global resurgence of fascism, the greatest difficulty has proved to be not arguing against it, but convincing non-fascists that fascism’s adherents really mean it. That they believe what they are telling us they believe—and they will act accordingly. The overwhelming instinct is to view calls for 100 million deportations in the US, civil war in the UK, arresting or executing political leaders, eliminating of trans people, rolling women’s rights back centuries, legalising domestic violence, and global genocide as a sort of trolling, or ugly incoherent rhetoric. But these are plain statements of intent. That modern fascists haven’t fully achieved these goals doesn’t somehow prove they don’t want to.” (08/14/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/fascists-really-believe-it/

Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato

“[O]ne need not accept the Pope’s Christian faith in order to oppose usury as a social relationship of unjust, exploitative power. And it is a relationship of power rather than one of mere economics, as if the latter exists in a sphere separate from the former. It may surprise some that one of American history’s most ardent and consistent proponents of free markets and individual liberty was also one of its greatest critics of usury. The anarchist Benjamin Tucker set forth to confront ‘a most momentous question,’ the question of who receives ‘the surplus wealth that labor produces and does not consume.’ For Tucker, usury was the key characteristic of capitalism, but it was the result of political power, not economic relationships of free and voluntary exchange.” (08/14/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/08/14/usury-is-politics-not-economics/

Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been frantically trying to restart a presidential campaign that appears moribund, with polls showing him losing in some states to figures such as Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In his absence, his multibillion-dollar high-speed train also seems to be going nowhere fast. A new report from the state inspector general revealed that the train will be delayed again and that the public is being kept in the dark about ongoing problems with Newsom’s signature project. Oh, and one more thing: the project will run out of money by December 2027. Benjamin Belnap’s report revealed the project is again running out of money. It found missing details in the project’s 2026 business plan, and concluded that the project will again be out of money by next year. The state has already spent $18 billion, but it will need at least another $18 billion to finish the first segment.” (08/15/26)

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/08/15/report-newsoms-high-speed-train-to-nowhere-is-not-arriving-anytime-soon/

Source: Independent Institute
by Brady Leonard

“The 47th president has a habit of waffling on important issues ranging from abortion to gun rights, but another position he has long maintained is his commitment to protectionism. Not only did Trump use executive action during his first term to impose tariffs on aluminum, steel, and other products, he also promised the nation that tariffs would be a centerpiece of his second-term economic vision. ‘To me the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff.’ It’s my favorite word,’ he said in a 2024 interview. Occam’s razor suggests the president was not duped by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House advisor Peter Navarro, or postliberal pseudo-economists (to be generous) such as Oren Cass any more than he was ‘fooled’ by Bibi Netanyahu or the late-Senator Lindsey Graham. The man just loves tariffs, despite the data.” (08/14/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/08/14/trump-loves-tariffs-2/

Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille

“Libraries aren’t all that socialist, and they’re far from the total state the radicals really want.” (08/14/26)

https://reason.com/2026/08/14/socialists-claim-public-libraries-are-examples-of-their-policies-dont-believe-them/