Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton

“There were multiple times in history when men have attempted to create and sustain limited government. This is little more than tolerating something that is inherently intolerable. Many ways have been sought and tried to limit the power of government, to prevent the rise of the all-powerful state. However, humans are perversely ingenious and are inventive when it comes to enslaving their fellows. And in convincing the slaves that they are still free. … We propose that until and unless we change matters drastically, there is NO limited government in the future of the Fifty States. It is a myth that limited government exists now, and we will continue to see more and more power, more and more control, in the hands of monsters in human form.” (11/20/25)

https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/11/19/limited-government-myth-or-future-fact/

Source: Virginia’s Newsletter
by Virginia Postrel

“Roots of Progress Institute founder Jason Crawford recently hosted me at an Interintellect salon. Our topic was the relation between glamour and progress, inspired by my Works in Progress article. At one point Jason asked a provocative question: Why did the anti-Promethean backlash happen when it did? Earlier periods of technological and economic progress, he noted, had produced demands for more progress, not less. What was different about America circa 1970? In the WiP article, I point to a combination of complacency among those who’d grown up amid postwar plenty and dissatisfaction with technocratic overreach. But why the complacency? Why not a demand for even more? My article didn’t consider that question.” (11/20/25)

https://vpostrel.substack.com/p/why-the-anti-promethean-backlash

Source: The Daily Economy
by Mani Basharzad

“What kind of goods and experiences comprise a ‘normal life?’ In 1900, Henry George thought millionaires lived abnormally because they had telephones in their bedrooms. Looking back, it’s remarkable how quickly the abnormal becomes ordinary. Today, even the poorest people — not only in rich countries but also in developing ones — carry a phone (which does much more than ring) in their pocket. That’s one of the miracles of the free market. French sociologist Gabriel Tarde noticed that forks and spoons were once luxuries reserved for the elite, but by his time had become universal. Ludwig von Mises drew inspiration from Tarde’s insight, calling it one of capitalism’s greatest virtues: the transformation of luxuries into necessities.” (11/20/25)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/embrace-consumer-choice/

Source: TomDispatch
by Mattea Kramer

“Rooting out terrorism and antisemitism was the supposed reason that plainclothed ICE agents arrested doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, after she coauthored an op-ed calling on Tufts University to divest from companies with ties to Israel due to the killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians. There is an international movement to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel, but in the United States, President Donald Trump is imperiling the freedom even to publicly discuss such ideas, which should, in effect, be considered a test case for his larger attack on free speech. So far, the test is going well for Trump. In what seems a long time ago, in 2024, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, released a blueprint for what it called ‘a national strategy to combat antisemitism’ by addressing what it described as ‘America’s virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American pro-Palestinian movement’.” (11/20/25)

https://tomdispatch.com/an-unexpected-con-to-end-free-speech/