For the first time in about a decade, senior U.S. and Iranian officials met face to face. Last Saturday, Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a round of negotiations on a subject that has been a source of contention for the two archnemeses for more than two decades: Tehran’s nuclear...Read more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data this week showing that 1 in 31 children in the U.S. is autistic. As researchers and physicians, we welcome the growing national attention—and federal funding—this condition is receiving.

But we worry the money is being directed toward the wrong question.

For decades, the lion...Read more

The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin.

By abruptly laying off federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty, and tore at fragile bonds years in the ...Read more

We understand the temptation for Chicago City Council members to blanket-ban the ragtag rioters and criminals who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 believing they had permission from the man who now occupies the White House. It’s hard to imagine any of them, especially those who committed violent acts, rising to the top of a pool of ...Read more

Despite the various frictions, America’s technology sector did pretty well during Joe Biden’s presidency — and despite the various warnings about his mercurial opponent, many tech executives supported Donald Trump in his 2024 campaign.

After his victory, even more rushed to Trump’s side, with Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg going ...Read more

Critics see a threat to free speech in last week’s announcement that the Trump administration will henceforth review the social media history of visa applicants to weed out those who have expressed antisemitic views.

No doubt the risk is there. But as with so much else that Donald Trump has done, let’s not pretend that the White House has ...Read more

If you're looking for a "podcast" to take your mind off of things, I have a great suggestion: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "fireside chats." I know the title makes it sound like ancient history, however, I promise you the episodes — beginning with the first, "The Banking Crisis," which dropped on March 12, 1933 — feel quite relevant.

...Read more

For years, the financial world has taken one truth for granted: people and countries will buy U.S. debt. If that changes, everything changes.

The United States borrows 30 trillion dollars… that’s trillion with a “T.” Foreign investors are among the largest holders of U.S. government debt. Japan is the largest, based on official data, ...Read more

Congratulations to Harvard University for fighting back against the Trump administration’s unseemly efforts to use federal dollars to try to exert unwarranted control over higher education. The oldest and richest college in America wasn’t the first targeted by the White House, that was Columbia, but while Columbia bowed down to the bully, ...Read more

As an economist, I know that information is key to our free-market system. If a business makes a good product sold at a fair price, it makes a profit. If it sells an inferior product or charges more than competitors, buyers turn away. Businesses must be responsive to consumer demands.

A democratic political system operates similarly. In this ...Read more

We live in a time of distinction overload, namely a proliferation of distinctions that are employed in all aspects of contemporary political, economic, and social life.

Distinction Overload — let's name it — is overwhelming citizens who pay attention to workplace dynamics, politics, and family life. Distinction Overload is a relative of ...Read more

When the financial markets go wild, investors naturally want to know, “What’s next?” Unfortunately, one answer turns out to be true every time: Brace yourself for a big upswing in financial fraud.

Market volatility and economic uncertainty combine to make everyone more vulnerable to fraud, from expert traders to regular folks who rarely ...Read more

If we were deeply divided during the last presidential election, I find we’re all in the same boat now. As I travel the country, people tell me they’re disoriented by the uncertainty, chaos, and confusion in society. I hear this from Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and others alike.

What’s clear is that we have lost a basic sense of...Read more

There are times when even history’s most famous leaders need to follow a leader. Sometimes it is another famous figure who rises to the occasion. Other times, it’s not-so-famous faces.

But this is one of those moments when all who genuinely want to “Make America Great Again” need to rise to the occasion. Follow your hat and your heart. ...Read more

They say that when a butterfly flaps their wings, it can change the weather on the other side of the world. But what happens when butterflies die out?

The number of butterflies in the U.S. has declined by around 22% since 2000, according to a new study published in the journal Science. This dwindling number is evident in every part of the ...Read more

In a big setback for free speech rights in America, Louisiana Immigration Judge Jamee Comans delivered a shameful verdict Friday: recent Columbia grad student and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil, detained by ICE for weeks, could be deported under an obscure section of law that allows the secretary of state to remove noncitizens who can ...Read more

At the time I’m writing this, the Trump administration has terminated the visas of six international students at UNC-Chapel Hill. Six more at UNC Charlotte. Three at Duke University. Two at North Carolina State University.

All in all, more than 650 student visas have been revoked nationwide, according to a database maintained by Inside Higher...Read more

In the Oval Office Monday, Salvadoran strongman Nayib Bukele and wannabe American strongman Donald Trump sat together and, among other things, explained why Maryland father Kilmar Abrego García, sent illegally to Bukele’s CECOT mega-prison at Trump’s behest.

The leaders laughed at the suggestion that they should comply with a court order ...Read more

Last Tuesday, the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt new, stricter guidelines on cellphones that essentially require students to keep them turned off in the lockers or other storage areas and be allowed to use them only in case of emergency — and even then only with the express permission of a school ...Read more