Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan

“Basic economics makes psychologically normal humans angry and disgusted. Usually mildly, but the uglier the economic lesson, the more extreme the anger and disgust become. … They don’t think very carefully, but they still have strong opinions against, say, letting developers buy up townhomes in San Francisco to replace them with skyscrapers. Which is very weird. Why would anyone have strong opinions about issues they haven’t thought about very carefully? Because they’re relying on emotion instead!” (05/18/26)

https://www.betonit.ai/p/economics-is-intuitive-rejoinder

Source: The Conversation
by Kevin Maloney

“The president’s rhetorical style, heard most recently on his mid-May trip to China, is explained by political allies as part of Trump’s strategic approach and criticized by his opponents as the dangerous musings of an unstable leader. In either case – whether it’s Trump’s defenders or detractors – it is increasingly difficult to ascertain whether the language of the president signals actual policy positions from the White House. If the words of the American president no longer function as reliable indicators of U.S. foreign policy, where can the public, U.S. allies and America’s adversaries look to better understand the administration’s geopolitical priorities? One answer may be found by examining the words of key Cabinet members.” (05/18/26)

https://theconversation.com/trumps-cabinet-dramatically-changed-american-foreign-policy-while-the-president-made-noise-a-scholar-of-presidential-rhetoric-explains-281307

Source: The Daily Economy
by Rebak Attila

“Current energy prices reflect the delayed costs of regulatory priorities that misallocated investment and undermined energy resilience.” (05/18/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/decades-of-bad-energy-policy-left-oil-markets-vulnerable-to-iran-shock/

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
by Tom Corbett & Bob Cindrich

“A judiciary that cannot operate without intimidation is not fully independent. A country that cannot accept lawful judicial outcomes will not continue to be governed by law.” (05/18/26)

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/law-judges-justice-courts-democracy-fairness-equality-20260518.html

Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison

“The people urging the U.S. to escalate are fanatics and ideologues who just want to see Iran in ruins no matter what it takes.” (05/18/26)

https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/escalation-in-iran-would-be-madness