Until June 2025, Bolivia was once again facing an all-too-familiar crisis: endless gasoline lines stretching for hours across major cities, rationed diesel distribution, and black-market prices that soared well above the official rate. Government officials call it a “temporary shortage” caused by logistical delays. But Bolivians standing in line for three hours under the sun know better. This is not a crisis of transportation, it is a crisis of central planning.

[The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer by Daniel J. Flynn (Encounter Books, 2025; 562 pp.)]

Napolitano: The argument is that less liberty produces more safety. That premise is historically and morally erroneous.

May PCE inflation rises to 2.3%. Remember when Powell predicted inflation would soon be back at 2 percent back in September? 

Trump wants more inflation. Warsh, Hassett and Bessent are among those under consideration as Trump evaluates their commitment to cutting rates. 

President Trump called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial to come to an end in a strong show of support for the Israeli leader.

The Luddites were 19th-century British textile workers who believed that the invention of machines and technology would destroy jobs. While times have changed, the same economic fallacies the Luddites had persist in different forms. Many still believe that technology ought to be regulated such that it does not lead to the loss of jobs. What modern-day Luddites fail to see is that technology and the dynamic nature of a free market economy make us wealthier than before.

Donald Trump and his allies continue to complain that the central bank isn’t inflating the money supply enough. Last week, Bill Pulte, Trump’s appointee to the Federal Housing and Finance Administration—and the head of Fannie and Freddie—complained that Powell and the FOMC weren’t forcing down interest rates enough.

Pulte wrote on X/Twitter: