The history of civilization is the record of a ceaseless struggle for liberty.

One of the Gulf of Mexico’s most iconic fish has also become one of its most politicized, the red snapper. For years now the prized catch has been part of a heated battle between federal regulators, the commercial fishing industry, and charter and recreational fishermen. The result has been fishing seasons consistently shrinking, even as snapper populations grow.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb does not suffer fools gladly. Author of several books including The Black Swan and Antifragile, Taleb is known for his incendiary personality almost as much as his brilliant work in probability theory. Readers of his very active Medium page will experience a formidable mind with no patience for trendy groupthink, a mind that takes special pleasure in lambasting elites with no “skin in the game.”

Bloomberg reported last week that worker mobility has returned to pre-recession levels. That is, Americans have returned to the feverish pace of moving out of state last experienced before the economy began to soften ten years ago. 

This, we are told, is a good sign for efficiency and economic growth: 

Any state, no matter how powerful, cannot not rule solely through the use of brute force. There are too few rulers and too many of us for coercion alone to be an effective means of control. The political class must rely on ideology to achieve popular compliance, masking the iron fist in a velvet glove. Violence is always behind every state action, but the most efficient form of expropriation occurs when the public believes it is in their interest to be extorted.

The Atlanta Fed’s final projected Q1 GDP growth rate was 0.2%. That was down from over 3% earlier in the year. Q1 GDP’s actual (”advanced”) number ended up being 0.7%, so the 0.2% was pretty close. 

But now, the second quarter has begun and the hilarity begins immediately. The forecast has jumped from the 0.2% to a 4.3% forecast for Q2, in a matter of days. Call it a forecast of hope.

It’s a scandal that few Westerners are even aware, or, if they are aware, they are not conscious, of the bloody reality that prevailed in China between the years 1949 and 1976, the years of communist rule by Mao Zedong.

Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has repeatedly attacked what he now calls the “liberal-individualist” or “neoliberal” vision of the world. With last week’s statement to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Francis has renewed the attack, but in the process has exhibited a number of political biases and demonstrably false assumptions.