August 17, 2025, marks the end of an era: for the first time in two decades, MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) has been excluded from the presidential runoff.

Most Western nations claim that they honor free speech. Constitutions around the world are centered around it. But if you move outside the political consensus in many European countries, that promise increasingly rings hollow. While this is prevalent in many European countries, Germany has some particularly dramatic examples this essay will analyze. In April 2025, a right-wing journalist named David Bendels got a seven-month sentence on parole for the crime of “defamation.” His crime?

Our great Senior Fellow Alex Pollock has pointed out that the reason Napoleon created the Bank of France was to make sure there was a bank that would always lend him money. Napoleon, of course, needed immense amounts of money because the French state was almost constantly at war during his reign. Having a central bank at his fingertips made it a lot easier for Napoleon to wage his wars on the rest of Europe.

US President Donald Trump has kicked off a tit-for-tat tariff war, claiming that foreign tariffs against American goods harm America and that American tariffs against foreign goods are essential to rebuild America’s manufacturing base. Frankly, it’s hard to keep track of all the reasons he instituted his “Liberation Day” tariff binge, except that the supposed benefits of tariffs are a life-long core belief that he refuses to reconsider. So, what are foreign countries to do?

It has been more than 16 years since the second Bush of the father-son political dynasty left office, but the damage done by these two men continues to affect the lives not only of people in the country but around the world. Unfortunately, in the present age of Donald Trump, both Democrats and never-Trump Republicans are rehabilitating their disastrous presidencies, asking us to forget their legacies of death and destruction. Over the next two weeks, this column will remind our readers of the carnage these two presidents left behind.

Last week, I noted that in spite of mounting pressure on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and the FOMC to cut the target policy interest rate, the Fed absolutely should not do it. Although Powell claims that current monetary policy is restrictive, this is not the case. Indeed, following an injection of more than five trillion dollars into the economy since early 2020, the last thing we need is even more Fed intervention in the economy to add even more liquidity. I wrote: 

The owners of three single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels in San Francisco’s Chinatown recently settled a lawsuit with the city, agreeing to pay a hefty fine of more than $800,000. Among their alleged crimes was that they “illegally converted, combined or added unauthorized housing units” to their properties.

The allegations expose something that should be humiliating for San Francisco: the development of a black market for housing.