The GDP Illusion: Surging Statistics Hide Pain for Average Americans

“The economy is actually booming.”—Richard Bernstein, guest on CNBC, January 15, 2026

“The US economy just delivered a shock. Third-quarter gross domestic product grew at a 4.3% annualized pace, far exceeding expectations and marking the biggest expansion in two years.”—Nicole Goodkind, “The Economy Is Heating Up. Why the Experts Keep Getting It Wrong,” Barron’s, December 24, 2025

Antebellum Federal Protections of Slavery

When moving away from superficial, cartoonish, and caricatured history, the importance of context and distinctions becomes obvious. Part of the task of responsible history is to show how things are often more complicated than first assumed. The Civil War is an important historical event in which this is evident. Zooming in on just one aspect of the US before the Civil War, it is key to understand the role of the federal legal protections of slavery.

Slavery Lasted in the Antebellum U.S. Because the Federal Government Protected It

When moving away from superficial, cartoonish, and caricatured history, the importance of context and distinctions becomes obvious. Part of the task of responsible history is to show how things are often more complicated than first assumed. The Civil War is an important historical event in which this is evident. Zooming in on just one aspect of the US before the Civil War, it is key to understand the role of the federal legal protections of slavery.

Trade Deficits and Sound Money

In recent years, and with particular intensity since Donald Trump’s ascent to the political center stage, trade deficits have been increasingly cast as symbols of national weakness. Persistent US trade deficits are treated not as accounting outcomes, but as evidence of unfair dealing, foreign predation, or elite incompetence. Surpluses are praised as victories, while deficits are framed as losses demanding correction through tariffs, subsidies, and industrial policy.