“The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding”
by William Hogeland
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2024; x + 575 pp.

Monopolies are believed to undermine individuals’ well-being, including being the cause of large increases in the prices of goods and services. According to Jean Tirole, the 2014 Nobel winner in economics, monopolies undermine the efficient functioning of the market economy by influencing the prices and the quantity of products, making consumers worse off.

The attempt to assassinate Donald Trump and his heroic response to it are uppermost in our minds. We don’t yet know the details of who was involved in the attempt on his life, though I suspect that the “lone gunman” theory will turn out to be false. But the sad event offers us a chance to reflect on something that we do know, and that may well be relevant to the attempt on the former—and we trust soon to be next—president’s life: The CIA has been involved in numerous assassination plots since its inception.

The sitting president is facing an unprecedented inner-party campaign to end his candidacy over his obvious cognitive decline. The presidential front-runner was an inch away from being killed on live television. Yet, in the middle of one of the craziest weeks in modern political history, the most fascinating development is the nomination of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate.