The Jobs Numbers Have Been Fake All Along

The Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning released new revised benchmark payroll totals used for estimating employment in the United States. The new revisions adjusted payrolls, for the year-long period ending in March 2025, downward by 911,000. That’s the largest downward revision on record, and the biggest since 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession. (The final figures for the period are due early next year.) 

Of Tomatoes and Tariffs

Are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable? While some may have different answers to this mostly lighthearted question, at one point in time it was taken up by the United States Supreme Court. Despite its seemingly amusing aspects, the story of Nix v. Hedden is one which has implications for those concerned with big government and the challenges of reform, while also providing a unique window into late-nineteenth century American politics.

The Libertarian Objection to Civil Rights Laws

Progressive liberals argue that civil rights are essential for “liberal democracy.” They see “democracy” founded on civil rights as the only political system compatible with liberalism. As explained by Paul Gottfried, a paleo-conservative who has been cast out of the liberal citadel for failing to embrace progressive notions of “good democracy,” “the consubstantiality of liberalism and democracy has become a modern religious dogma.” Human rights and civil rights are considered indispensable to that dogma.