Source: Liberal Currents
by Joseph Stieb

“The case against the current war with Iran is so overwhelming as to hardly need articulation. The war is illegal, unprovoked, unethical, strategically blinkered, and likely to further destabilize the region. … Nonetheless, many Democrats and liberal commentators have adopted a feckless, procedural critique of Trump’s aggression. … These criticisms (if they even merit that term) are narrow, tactical, and counter-productive. They imagine that a reasonable, justifiable war with Iran exists somewhere in space, waiting to be articulated. They entertain the fantasy that there’s a reasonable version of Trump capable of thinking through such an operation. Finally, they cede the rhetorical ground to Trump by admitting that one could wage unprovoked war on Iran ‘the right way’ with better planning, multi-lateral support, and a smarter communications strategy. Check these boxes, the critics imply, and Trump’s war might be justified.” (03/01/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/feeble-criticism-of-war-with-iran-echoes-the-lead-up-to-war-with-iraq/

Source: Reason
by Katherine Mangu-Ward

“In 1988, Peng Peiyun was assigned to China’s State Family Planning Commission. Her job was to implement the relatively new one-child policy. The Communist Party was sure that it knew how many people should be in the Chinese population to prevent famine and overcrowding — so sure, in fact, that it was willing to require abortions and sterilization under threat of violence. … Today, China’s population is shrinking, births are collapsing, and the same government that once punished pregnancy is now begging for it with subsidies, propaganda, and social pressure, all of which have so far failed to reverse the trend. Even after decades of highly directive engineering and violent enforcement, the ‘right’ number of people remains stubbornly out of reach. The same category error animates today’s immigration crackdowns in the United States. Population control is technocratic arrogance at its most intimate and brutal.” (for publication 04/26)

https://reason.com/2026/03/01/no-one-knows-the-right-number-of-people/

Source: The UnPopulist
by Ilya Somin

“On the night of Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel initiated a large-scale military attack on Iran. Bypassing congressional authorization, President Donald Trump acted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike top Iranian leadership and a variety of other targets. This action is blatantly unconstitutional. Its wisdom and morality are more debatable.” [editor’s note: The reverse, actually. There’s no doubt that the war is stupid and evil. As for “authorization,” most of the people whining about that NOW still pretend that something other than an actual declaration of war would suffice, which starts the debate down a false path immediately – TLK] (03/01/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/trumps-unauthorized-strikes-on-iran

Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman

“The rise of generative AI has led to alternating waves of hype and fear. One day the S&P 500 is soaring, led by AI-adjacent companies. A few months later the S&P is falling due to fears that too much money is being spent on datacenters and that AI will undermine business models. It’s still difficult to predict what AI will actually do, and I have no special insights on that front. But while AI is an unprecedented technology, hype and fear about the impacts of new technology — together with hard thinking about the issue — are anything but new. In fact, concerns about the effects of new technology and attempts to model those effects go back more than two centuries, to the early days of the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of economics as an intellectual field.” (03/01/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-economics-of-technological-change

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Rachel Chiu

“Earlier this month, US District Judge Alan Albright granted an injunction against Texas Senate Bill 13 (‘SB 13’), a state law aimed at curbing ‘woke capitalism’ and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Over the past few years, these practices have taken the form of regulations, reporting requirements, and credit metrics on areas including environmental impact and diversity. Conservatives have pushed back on ESG, believing that these initiatives have enabled progressive ideology and values to undermine business investments. … Lawmakers have good reason to be skeptical of ESG principles and their effects on investment. However, Judge Albright’s ruling is a potent reminder that overly expansive legislative fixes can skirt too close to civil liberties and ultimately fail to achieve their intended objectives.” (03/01/26)

https://fee.org/articles/let-the-market-decide/