The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society
by Joseph E. Stiglitz
W.W. Norton, 2023; xxiv + 356 pp.

Following the European elections, French credit default swaps have soared to a post-2020 record of 39 points. Many commentators blame the rise of the National Front for market turmoil, which has sent all euro area spreads higher. However, none of this would have happened if France’s debt was low, finances were strong, and the euro area economies enjoyed healthy economic growth.

Following last week’s decisions, which represented a significant blow to the American administrative state, today, the Supreme Court did what was widely expected: rule in favor of Donald Trump in a case related to federal prosecution over January 6. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that presidents have “presumptive immunity” for “official acts” while in office.

Robert Reich is on his fifth myth, but so far, he has just been recycling the same progressive talking points in each one. The overall message is that big corporations and the super wealthy wield too much political power and that they shape the law in their own favor, contributing to terrible economic inequality. For Reich, the US economy is a zero-sum game and the people at the top have rigged it so they win and everybody else loses.

The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022 funds the CHIPS for America Act that was initiated under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in January 2021. The 2021 legislation authorized the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, and Department of State to develop onshore domestic manufacturing of semiconductors.

This week on Wednesday 26th at around 2:30 of the afternoon military forces in ski masks took Plaza Murillo, the main plaza where the seat of the Bolivian government resides. Actions that at first seemed totally out of the ordinary, actions taken from history books, as a military coup has not happened since the 1980’s.

Julian Assange’s heroic but tragic life has taken an unexpected turn for the better with his recent liberation through a plea deal with the US government.