Source: The Bulwark
by Adrian Carrasquillo
“Undocumented immigrants contribute billions to Social Security and other programs. That money might fall off because of Trump’s crackdown.” (03/05/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-irs-data-tracking-immigrants-social-security
Source: CNBC
“A sharp drop in mortgage interest rates finally lit a fire under loan demand. Both current homeowners and potential homebuyers jumped back into the market, after a lackluster showing for this year so far. Total mortgage application volume jumped 20.4% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. This was not only the first increase in three weeks, but it is an outsized weekly move.” (03/05/25)
Source: Serious Trouble
“Short Staffing.” (03/05/25)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has undergone massive changes in the past month. Contrary to what many members of Congress and bureaucrats are saying, it’s great news. Reining in the CFPB means reducing uncertainty in the financial world from excessive regulation and costly regulatory agencies’ bloated budgets. Unfortunately, the measures have been stalled in court. Reducing the CFPB’s size and scope would greatly reduce a large amount of uncertainty in financial markets that stem from regulation.” (03/05/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/dismantling-overreach-why-reining-in-the-cfpb-is-the-right-move/
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Why cheap proxy wars and endless interventionism still cost too much. Here we consider a more holistic case for limiting American military adventures and proxy wars abroad.” (03/05/25)
Source: Common Dreams
by Ann Wright
“On a motorized float designed and built several weeks into the Trump administration for the Rose Monday celebration before Lent in Cologne or Koln, Germany, the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump vividly illustrates what is becoming more of his view toward the world and toward citizens of the United States. On the float, Trump has the world perched on his middle finger, a derogatory symbol known worldwide. With Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s mega-bully job on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, February 28, 2025, Trump’s image of giving the finger to not only Zelensky, but also the leaders of the European community who met with Zelensky one day later on March 1 in London, seems to symbolize Trump’s view of European leaders.” (03/05/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-middle-finger-world
Source: Yahoo! News
“The U.S. Supreme Court has limited how flexible the Environmental Protection Agency and states can be in regulating water pollution under the Clean Water Act in a ruling issued March 4, 2025. However, the justices kept the decision relatively narrow. The ruling only prohibits federal and state permitting agencies from issuing permits that are effectively broad orders not to violate water quality standards. In this case, the city and county of San Francisco argued successfully that the EPA’s requirements were not clear enough. … The city and county of San Francisco argued that their permit terms weren’t fair because they couldn’t tell how to comply.” (03/05/25)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-sides-san-francisco-131316178.html
Source: Pioneer Institute
“UK Oxford’s Robin Lane Fox on Homer & The Iliad.” (03/05/25)
https://pioneerinstitute.org/featured/uk-oxfords-robin-lane-fox-on-homer-the-iliad/
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Do people want to be rich? Or just richer than their neighbors? Self-styled ‘realists’ have long defended the latter position: What human beings really savor is not material wealth, but feeling superior to others. … each of us possesses a nearly fool-proof short-cut to relative riches. Namely: Move to a poorer area. If you want to feel superior to your immediate neighbors, move to a poor neighborhood. If you want to feel superior to people in your state, move to a poor state. If you want to feel superior to people in your country, move to a poor country. When we look at human migration, all three of these choices are rare.” (03/05/25)
Source: Persuasion
by Stephen E Hanson & Jeffrey Kopstein
“The United States is joining the ranks of patrimonial states. It’s nothing short of a revolution.” (03/05/25)