In his book The Four Loves, published in 1960, three years before he died in 1963, the Irish/Englishman C.S. Lewis says that, although goodness itself cannot turn bad, things that we associate with goodness and that even have trended toward goodness can turn bad.

President Trump earlier this month suggested to Premier Ishiba that Japan buy more U.S. fuel and participate in a $44 billion project to develop liquified natural gas (LNG) in Alaska. If pricing is competitive, increasing and diversifying LNG sources would be beneficial for Japan, an important ally. Increasing LNG sales would be positive for U.S. gas producers’ revenue, but it could also increase domestic gas prices, erasing a U.S. competitive advantage, hurting consumers and businesses alike. These two competing factors must be balanced, and U.S. domestic gas production must grow. 

For the first time in years, the U.S. Congress is considering budget bills that could seriously rein in government spending growth.

There’s no question that billions of dollars in pandemic relief aid was stolen by fraudsters in 2020. Here’s a quick tally of the estimates of how many billions were stolen:

When President Trump was running for election in 2024, he said he’d end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. That hasn’t happened. Lately, he’s called Ukraine President Zelensky a dictator and even blamed him for starting the war with Russia. It seems he’s tilting toward Russia in his attempt to negotiate an end to the war.

The Trump presidency has forced Canada to examine its political beliefs. The country has become a hub of left-wing liberalism. Medically assisted-suicide is the fifth leading cause of death. There are no federal laws restricting abortion, and open-door immigration has increased the population to such an extent that the government no longer knows how many hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants are in the country. The court system has become a revolving door for criminals where repeat offenders do not fear punishment, and the court views criminals as victims. Drug consumption sites proliferate, providing users with their high with no hope of recovery. While President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, Canada is doubling down on its vision of equity. 

This commentary addresses the grave problem of energy policies originating from a political or quasi-religious agenda propelled by climate zealots, misinformation, and obliviousness to basic economic principles. Such a policy is inescapably destined to jeopardize the public to benefit special interests. Appeasing competing special interests at the expense of the general public has been the hallmark of past government-driven energy policies.

The emergence of right-wing leaders in various parts of the world and their counter-offensive against wokeism, global elites, and liberalism has given rise to a narrative according to which the “far right,” the “nationalist right,” or the “populist right” (whatever you want to call them) is taking over from the left and establishing itself as the dominant force in the West and its periphery. Argentina’s Javier Milei, for instance, has talked about a “right-wing international,” while several speakers at a recent gathering of “Patriots for Europe”, a parliamentary bloc made up of various European parties in Brussels, held in Madrid, spoke of a new era.

During its last four months in power, the Biden-Harris administration opened the U.S. government’s money spigots as wide as they could. Appointed officials and bureaucrats across the federal government frantically spent money at a rate never before seen outside of pandemics and wars.

Last November, the European Union confirmed Spain’s Teresa Ribera as Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Competition to replace the outgoing Margarette Vestager. The move will likely bring about a notable shift in antitrust doctrine. Vestager’s time in office saw the aggressive use of competition enforcement against American as well as European firms, often to the frustration of domestic leaders. However, alongside Vestager’s iconic use of aggressive antitrust enforcement came calls from European leaders to support the continental economy and produce homegrown companies that could compete with the Americans and Chinese. In particular, the end of her administration saw the emergence of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law targeting individual U.S. and Chinese tech firms with discriminatory obligations. Given these realities, combined with public statements from Ribera about the need to support European firms, her nomination suggests that the E.U. intends to openly use antitrust as a tool for industrial policy.