The Inflation Reduction Act recently passed by the Senate is an act of economic and financial illiteracy one would tend to associate with Argentine politicians, not with the Parliament of the world´s only superpower. The Senate Majority Leader has characterized it as “a legislative feat of the 21st century.” One wonders what he was smoking. Or perhaps he was right and this will become a lasting paradigm of U.S. politicians’ inability to learn any of the lessons of the last hundred years.

I’m reading a book on political economy that, early on, says “Consider, for example, inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth that result from the stark differences of economic opportunity and power between people in different socio-economic circumstances, particularly those relating to class, race and gender.” It happens to be this book, but that sentence is characteristic of contemporary thinking regarding economic issues. Inequality along racial and gender lines is a hot topic. I wrote about this in The Beacon recently, here, and here.

So, as that book says, let’s consider inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth.

To the layperson, a license plate might be the most boring thing in the world besides the occasional unique background design or humorous custom lettering. But to an officer, a license plate is invaluable for its information. Beyond the make, model, and other relevant details about the car it’s attached to, when a license plate is run, we learn about the registered owner, their driving status, if the driver has a warrant, if the car has been reported stolen, and sometimes other officer alerts. 

However, due to poor safeguards surrounding automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology, license plate-related issues can graduate regular traffic stops to more serious, potentially deadly encounters. 

In recent years, a number of fully operational nuclear power plants with years and sometimes decades remaining in their permitted operating lives have been prematurely shuttered in the United States. Many of these closures have been politically motivated, coming on the heels of drawn out litigation from state governments and environmental groups who are not motivated by specific concerns, but by an overarching distrust of nuclear technology. Closures have also come as the result of shifting energy economics caused in no small part by high subsidies for wind and solar technologies, coupled with the refusal to treat nuclear power as green or zero carbon; despite the fact that nuclear power is less carbon intensive than solar, and has the same carbon intensity as wind, it is not treated as such.

New York City has no objection to 21-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic competing in the U.S. Open, which he has won three times. In a similar style, the Open has no objection to Djokovic, nor does the United States Tennis Association (USTA). 

The ban on Djokovic is a project of Joe Biden, who declares that all non-citizens traveling to the United States must be vaccinated. Djokovic rejects vaccination based on “the freedom to decide what you put into your body.” Biden denies that freedom and claims his policy offers “science-based public health measures,” but Djokovic has to wonder. 

The White House recently announced that President Biden’s decision on whether to continue the freeze on student loan payments would come sometime in the next week.

“We’ve been talking daily about this and I can tell you that the American people will hear within the next week or so,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

The payment freeze is set to expire at the end of the month, which means payments will resume in September if no new action is taken.

As Brad Polumbo notes, Congress is poised to pass a bill that would increase IRS funding by $80 billion and more than double the IRS workforce. This expansion allegedly targets only wealthy tax cheats, but as Polumbo contends “everyday Americans should be concerned.”

The IRS is a “rogue agency without accountability,” targeting taxpayers who have broken no laws and doing it for political purposes. Those responsible for the crackdown suffered no consequences, all part of the IRS “recent scandals and abuses of its power.”

“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders,”

~ G.K. Chesterton 

Forged miles beneath the earth’s crust. 

Eternal—or as close as we get in this vale of tears. 

Objects of endless fascination and avarice, the diamond is at times witness to bloody conflict in its production and exchange (more on that below). 

Gray skies, ash covering the streets, and the perfume of the burning forest have become an all-too-common occurrence of summer in the West. 

On July 29, at approximately 2:15 PM, a wildfire ignited in northern Siskiyou county, where almost 50 percent of the land is federally managed. 

By the end of the day, the blaze had grown to over 315 acres; not as bad as it could be, considering the 100-degree temperatures and the rugged terrain it was burning. 

In a past Catalyst article by Trevor Mauk and Jonathan Hofer, the authors cover a now decided Supreme Court case, FBI v. Fazaga. The question at issue in Fazaga is whether the “District court can review contested surveillance that is protected under state secrets privilege.”

What Mauk and Hofer grapple with is the leeway the government has to withhold evidence from a legal proceeding. Another interesting corollary to this is how does the government, specifically Congress, have the power to request evidence in the form of subpoenas in their investigations?