After Kevin Warsh was confirmed as Federal Reserve chairman last week, he received a stark reminder of the challenges facing the central bank. The reminder came in the form of a worldwide surge in the interest rates paid by government bonds. The surge followed the spike in oil prices caused by the Iran War.
At this point, the conservative populist political strategy amounts to little more than doing the same thing over and over, and when that fails, trying the exact same thing yet again.
[Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy: Questioning the Mission Economy, edited by Magnus Henrekson, Christian Sandström, and Mikael Stenkula]
A proposed November 2026 California ballot initiative called “Save California Health Care and Public Education” is also the billionaires tax. The initiative is sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW West).
In Washington, bad ideas rarely die—they rebrand. Industrial policy—long discredited in theory and practice—has returned under the more palatable language of “resilience” and “strategic supply chains.” The Trump administration’s proposed minerals consortium is the latest iteration. Sold as a necessary response to dependence on China for the processing of rare earths and other critical minerals, it promises coordination, investment, and independence. What it will deliver instead is distortion, waste, and a fresh round of politically-driven malinvestment.
Overall, 64 percent of respondents sad that Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was the wrong decision. 70 percent of Republicans approve.
