According to the Treasury Department’s report on federal spending for fiscal year 2025, total spending on food stamps—also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—was $106 billion for the twelve-month period ending September 30. Even in our post-covid age of runaway monetary inflation, 106 billion dollars is still, as they say, “real money,” and SNAP spending doesn’t even include other food-subsidy programs like WIC and school lunch programs.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt for their “contributions to understanding innovation-driven economic growth.” Among them, Aghion and Howitt were honored for their work on how sustained growth can arise through “creative destruction.” However, if Joseph Schumpeter could see how his concept of creative destruction has been repackaged as a theoretical justification for government intervention, he would be rolling in his grave.

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.