Amazon plans thousands more corporate job cuts next week, sources say

Source: Reuters

“Amazon is planning a second round of job cuts next week as part of its broader goal of trimming some 30,000 corporate workers, according to two people familiar with the matter. The company in October cut some 14,000 white-collar jobs, about half of the 30,000 target first reported by Reuters. The total this time is expected to be roughly the same as last year and could begin as soon as Tuesday, the people said, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss Amazon’s plans. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.” (01/22/26)

https://archive.is/nfLgE

Thomas L. Knapp

Mission behind Trump’s Board of Peace is simple, and critics keep getting it wrong

Source: New York Post
by Jonathan Schanzer

“President Trump is making big moves the world over. From nabbing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro to threatening the conquest of Greenland to pushing for a Ukraine-Russia cease-fire, Trump’s foreign policy plate is full. The World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, is still buzzing about it. Overshadowed by these bigger headlines but no less important is Trump’s newly minted Board of Peace. The board is designed to implement the president’s 20-point peace plan for the war-torn Gaza Strip, as endorsed verbatim by the UN Security Council in November. Notable critics, including French President Emmanuel Macron, assert that Trump … is trying to supplant the United Nations as part of a wider overhaul of the international system that, in the wake of World War II, produced the UN, NATO and many of the other organizations that are steadily losing relevance today.” (01/21/25)

https://nypost.com/2026/01/21/opinion/the-mission-behind-trumps-board-of-peace-is-simple-and-critics-keep-getting-it-wrong/

Steve Trinward

Defining Money

Source: Cobden Centre
by James Turk

“Many modern economists struggle to define money. Often beginning with an historical overview of the concept of moneyness, they generally end by describing the functions of money. What money ‘does’ is not a definition of what money ‘is.’ Another way they strive to define money is with the use of adjectives. A common example is ‘sound money,’ which is like saying ‘wet water.’ The adjective is superfluous because the noun is intuitively understood, or at least should be, as it was to the pioneers of the Austrian School. Although I obviously cannot speak for Menger and Mises, their intuitive understanding of money is different from that of modern writers. It had to be because the environmental factors when they were writing a century or more ago were so very different from today given the then prevailing everyday use of gold and silver.” (01/22/26)

https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/01/defining-money/

Thomas L. Knapp

The US-Israel Hybrid War Against Iran

Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs and Sybil Fares

“The question is not if the US and Israel will attack Iran, but when. In the nuclear age, the US refrains from all-out war, since it can easily lead to nuclear escalation. Instead, the US and Israel are waging war against Iran through a combination of crushing economic sanctions, targeted military strikes, cyberwarfare, stoking unrest, and unrelenting misinformation campaigns. This combination strategy is called ‘hybrid warfare.'” (01/22/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/jeffrey_sachs/2026/01/21/the-us-israel-hybrid-war-against-iran/?

Thomas L. Knapp

Judge Blocks US Regime From Reviewing Seized Washington Post Devices

Source: New York Times

“A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government not to review materials seized during the search of a Washington Post reporter’s home last week. The ruling, from Magistrate Judge William B. Porter, was in response to a legal filing by the newspaper on Wednesday arguing that the seizures violated the First Amendment and demanding the return of the items. ‘The seizure chills speech, cripples reporting and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on protected materials,’ the company said in the filing. Judge Porter wrote that The Post and the reporter, Hannah Natanson, had shown ‘good cause’ to maintain the ‘status quo’ while the issues were being sorted out in court.” (01/22/26)

https://archive.is/rW6nB

Thomas L. Knapp

Does Humanomics Need a Moral Anchor?

Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Dr. Edward W Younkins

“At its core, Humanomics aims to integrate moral and social dimensions into the scientific study of economic behavior, recapturing insights from Adam Smith that have been marginalized in mainstream economic theory. Rather than reducing humans to narrow maximizers of utility, Humanomics treats them as sentient, social, purposeful, learning agents whose actions are shaped by sentiments, norms, ethical commitments, and reflective judgment.” (01/22/26)

https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/01/does-humanomics-need-moral-anchor.html

Thomas L. Knapp

Slightly Against The “Other People’s Money” Argument Against Aid

Source: Astral Codex Ten

“IIUC, the argument is that people who would not donate to charity themselves find it more congenial to vote to tax other people and give their money to charity. A simple problem with this argument is that actually, each voter’s money will also be taxed. So for example, if there’s a vote on whether to tax everyone an extra $100 and spend the money on foreign aid, then voting in favor of the law costs you $100, the same as if you donated the money yourself voluntarily.” (01/22/26)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/slightly-against-the-other-peoples

Thomas L. Knapp