Clark Packard and Alfredo Carrillo Obregon The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report offers a stark reminder that US manufacturing continues to struggle. Manufacturing employment fell again in December 2025, marking the third consecutive year with net annual job growth. This persistent decline comes despite the Trump administration’s stated goal of revitalizing domestic manufacturing, and data increasingly suggest that ...
Matthew Cavedon A local St. Paul, Minnesota, police officer, Heather Weyker, claimed to have uncovered a vast interstate sex trafficking conspiracy, which led to the indictment of thirty individuals. But no such conspiracy existed. In the Eighth Circuit’s words, the entire scheme was based on “lies, manipulate[d] witnesses, and falsifie[d] evidence.” One of those witnesses, Muna Abdulkadir, assaulted two girls, ...
Gabriela Calderon de Burgos Today in the Wall Street Journal, economist Judy Shelton suggests that Latin American countries adopt the US dollar. She weighs in on the pros and cons of dollarization as a regional phenomenon. Ms. Shelton argues that “Greater financial stability and rapid development in emerging-market nations within our hemisphere could serve US national interests as shared prosperity strengthens ...
Tad DeHaven The federal government is to become the customer, regulator, and partial owner of a defense contractor under a deal announced by the Pentagon this week. When the Trump administration’s corporate equity acquisition spree got rolling in August, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that defense contractors were being considered. On January 13, the Pentagon announced a $1 billion investment—structured as ...
Benjamin Giltner Many people remain stumped over President Trump’s continual insistence on acquiring Greenland. He most recently justified a takeover of the island with the claim that Greenland is needed to build the Golden Dome. While defense experts are right to note that annexing Greenland is unnecessary for the Golden Dome’s completion, the more important takeaway from this—other than the absurdity of ...
Dominik Lett The interest on a typical 30-year mortgage costs $500 more per month than it did in 2019. Credit card rates have climbed to record highs. From auto loans to business financing, borrowing costs have surged across the board since the pandemic. Understandably, many Americans are frustrated by rising borrowing costs and sticker shock, even as wage gains have ...
Jeffrey A. Singer, Terence Kealey, and Bautista Vivanco Since the publication of three books — Gary Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007), Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (2008), and Nina Teicholz’s Big Fat Surprise (2014) — it has become common to joke that there’s nothing wrong with the standard food pyramid as long as you turn it upside down. The traditional pyramid ...
Jerome Famularo Last week, President Trump instructed his “representatives” to purchase roughly $200 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS). It appears to be an attempt to lower mortgage rates without relying on a Federal Reserve that is not easing (lowering interest rates) as aggressively as the administration would like. Sidestepping the Fed, the plan relies on Fannie Mae and Freddie ...
Colleen Hroncich When both of Amanda Lucas’s daughters were diagnosed with serious medical conditions within the same month, conventional school became impossible. They were spending too much time at hospitals. She was already running a homeschool pod for her younger daughter, so she pulled her tenth grader out and started homeschooling her, too. That year changed everything. Her high schooler ...
Jeffrey A. Singer Today President Trump announced he will ask Congress to enact what he calls “The Great Healthcare Plan.” The proposal is light on details, but one item on the White House fact sheet jumped out at me: making more proven, safe drugs available over the counter. From the fact sheet: Allow More Over-the-Counter Medicines Make more verified safe ...