According to several recent news reports, the two major Trump foreign policy shifts last week are the handiwork of Marco Rubio, the President’s Secretary of State and (acting) National Security Advisor. As with all neocon plans, they will be big on promises and small on delivery.

Today’s politicians are heavily indebted to Alexander Hamilton for pushing the machinery of big government under their control. In assessing Hamilton’s role, it’s important to remember that the country formally began for the second time in 1789 when the Constitution was ratified by nine of the thirteen states. Neither the Articles of Confederation nor the Constitution would have been created had it not been for the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Standard & Poor’s recent decision to maintain Greece’s credit rating at stable was no surprise, but it was instructive. It confirmed that the markets view Greece as fiscally disciplined and institutionally credible, yet still in need of deeper structural renewal.

In highlighting what they see as the excesses of capitalism, the strategy of many progressives is to slander capitalists as terrible human beings. Their message is that capitalism is bad because capitalists are racists, fascists, and Nazis. For example, the socialist Quinn Slobodian described Murray Rothbard as a “racist.”

Last week, the US’s total federal debt surpassed $38 trillion. Federal debt now increases at a shocking rate, with the US’s debt increasing from $37 trillion to $38 trillion in just 73 days. It took nine months for the debt to increase from $36 to $37 trillion.