Politico reports: Gavin Newsom is fully embracing his status as his party’s foremost podcast bro. … It got off to a polarizing start last March, with a succession of friendly interviews with conservative influencers like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. And while the headlines that tended to enrage Democrats have fallen off, the California governor’s […]
Newsom talking across the aisle
Newsom talking across the aisle
31 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2028 presidential election
Michelle Tandler on NYC rent control
28 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: rent control
This is what I’m seeing: + 2.4 million rent-controlled apartments in a city with a massive housing shortage and 1.4% vacancy rate. + A huge % of these tenants are wealthy, white boomers using the units as pieds-a-terres while they spend their weekends and summers elsewhere. + Meanwhile, the government is using rent control to…
Michelle Tandler on NYC rent control
Some Links
26 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, international economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice
TweetPhil Magness’s new essay on the origins of the vague and derogatory term “neoliberalism” is superb. A slice: While most versions of the neoliberal label still come from the academic left today, the term has come back into favor within a certain, curious strand of the right. Conservative writers such as Patrick Deneen, Adrian Vermeule,…
Some Links
Poor whites used to vote for Democratic presidential candidates while rich whites voted Repulican. This has now reversed
24 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential elections, voter demographics
See Entertainment got too good by Eric Levitz of Vox. The article has some interesting ideas on why this happened along with some useful graphics. I have links to several related posts on the attitudes of Democrats & Repulicans, what shapes their views, how they differ, how they affect their daily lives and why they change…
Poor whites used to vote for Democratic presidential candidates while rich whites voted Repulican. This has now reversed
Americans Are Getting Richer, Part IV
24 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, income redistribution, labour economics, macroeconomics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality
In 2016, here’s some of what I wrote about the economic outlook in Illinois. And I shared the same observation when writing about California in 2018. There’s a somewhat famous quote from Adam Smith (“there is a great deal of ruin in a nation“) about the ability of a country to survive and withstand lots of […]
Americans Are Getting Richer, Part IV
“It’s Going to Get Really Serious”: Liberal Influencers Discuss Public Trials and Court Expansion After Democratic Takeover
22 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: constitutional law
Former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta spoke with popular podcaster Jennifer Welch, discussing the plans for radical changes after a Democratic…
“It’s Going to Get Really Serious”: Liberal Influencers Discuss Public Trials and Court Expansion After Democratic Takeover
Endangered Republicans at Yale
21 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - USA Tags: academic bias
The NY Post reports: A recent report from the Buckley Institute found that there are no Republican faculty members across 27 departments at Yale University. … It found that nearly 83% of faculty are registered Democrats or primarily support Democratic candidates. More than 15% identify as independent, and fewer than 3% are Republicans, according to the report. Most notably, 27 of 43 undergraduate…
Endangered Republicans at Yale
‘Market Power in Antitrust Cases,’ by William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
17 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, Richard Posner Tags: competition law
William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner’s 1981 Harvard Law Review article “Market Power in Antitrust Cases” is a true classic. Showing the value of interdisciplinary work within the law & economics tradition, it brought real clarity to what “market power” means and how courts should assess it—cutting through vague labels like “monopoly power” and…
‘Market Power in Antitrust Cases,’ by William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
Western Leftists and Islamic States
14 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, economics of religion, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: regressive left
Western leftists do criticise Islamic states at times—but they rarely prioritise opposing them, and often treat them with conspicuous restraint. That asymmetry is not accidental. It follows from the same ideological lenses that drive anti-Zionism. Here are the main reasons. 1. Anti-imperialism outweighs liberal values For much of the Western Left, opposition to Western power is the overriding moral […]
Western Leftists and Islamic States
In His Quest for Easy-Money Policy, Trump Launches Lawfare Against the Federal Reserve
14 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA Tags: monetary policy
When he first ran for President, I observed that Trump was a big-government Republican. This doesn’t mean he’s part of the moderate GOP establishment, like Bush and Romney. But it does mean that there is considerable overlap in terms of supporting bad policy, as indicated by my last two columns. Yesterday, I wrote about his […]
In His Quest for Easy-Money Policy, Trump Launches Lawfare Against the Federal Reserve
The ICE Elephant: Why the Law Requires All the Facts
13 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Below is my column in The Hill on the refusal of many to consider all of the facts in the…
The ICE Elephant: Why the Law Requires All the Facts
Carding the Internet Still Isn’t Constitutional
13 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, politics - USA
After the U.S. Supreme Court decided Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton last year, I wrote that the “broader war over age verification and parental consent online isn’t over.” As we head into 2026, that prediction looks right. The fight has shifted. Lawmakers have moved their focus from social-media platforms to app stores. But the basic…
Carding the Internet Still Isn’t Constitutional
Some Snapshots of the US Demographic Future
13 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, population economics Tags: ageing society, population bust
Demography is the study of the structure of human populations, including factors like births, deaths, aging, as well as health and economic factors. Some demographic changes happen slowly, over decades, but in a predicable way. For example, if you want to look at projections for the year 2050 of the ratio of the US working-age…
Some Snapshots of the US Demographic Future
Sam Harris and John McWhorter: Is wokeness dead?
12 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - USA, discrimination, Marxist economics Tags: free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
In this shortish (23-minute) video, Sam Harris and John McWhorter discuss whether wokeness is finally dead. The short answer is “nope.” It may have lain down, but it refuses to die. The YouTube notes (there’s a transcript you can see as well): Sam Harris speaks with John McWhorter about language, ideology, and moral certainty. They […]
Sam Harris and John McWhorter: Is wokeness dead?
Profile of George Borjas and his influence
12 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: economics of immigration
More recently, his research has found new attention and urgency in President Donald Trump’s second term: Borjas, 75, worked as a top economist on the Council of Economic Advisers, a post he stepped down from last week. Borjas is an immigrant and refugee who escaped Cuba for the United States in 1962 and later obtained…
Profile of George Borjas and his influence
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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