Nov
1
2024

What Would We Do Without Newspaper Endorsements?

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It would be nice to find out. Matt Welch says good riddance: Newspaper Endorsements Die in Daylight.

It sure has been a banner week for the triple haters.

As if rising to the defense of its newly minted status as the most distrusted institution in America, the news media over the past few days has responded to the one-upsmanship of awful with a hearty "Hold my beer."

In an October surprise for the newspaper industry, first the L.A. Times, then USA Today, and most spectacularly The Washington Post all announced in these final days of the 2024 campaign that they were breaking with their tradition (very recent, in the case of USA Today) of endorsing a candidate for president. The fallout has been impressive: "At least 250,000" cancelled subscriptions at the Post (a 10 percent drop), a reported 18,000 more at the Times (5 percent range); staff resignations at both.

But what really ignited the triple haters—those with disdain for Democrats, Republicans, and the media—were the haughty, whither-democracy expressions of journalistic umbrage.

I never knew I was a triple hater.

Also of note:

  • We're number … five? That's where my country falls on the list provided in this year's edition of Economic Freedom of the World from the Fraser Institute. Behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Switzerland. This is an improvement from the 2022 report which had us in seventh place, behind Australia and Denmark.

    Is our economic liberty improving? Or are we getting worse, but slower than other countries?

    Anyway, Veronique de Rugy offers one obvious lesson from the report: Countries With Economic Freedom Are Far Better Off.

    The ability to choose your job, start a business, own property, or decide how to spend your paycheck may seem natural to most Americans. Yet for billions around the world, the most basic economic freedoms remain out of reach. The latest Economic Freedom of the World index, just released by the Fraser Institute, reminds us why freedom matters for everyone, whether you're a factory worker in Michigan, a tech entrepreneur in Austin, or a farmer in Niger.

    Economic freedom isn't just some wonky concept debated in academic halls. It's about whether a government protects property rights or seizes assets at will; whether regulations are sensible or suffocating; whether you can trade freely or face a maze of obstructions; whether your money holds its value or your purchasing power gets eroded by government mismanagement; and whether you can count on courts to enforce contracts fairly.

    Note: the Institute's current report reflects 2022 data. If you want to know where we stand currently, you'll have to do your own research.

  • Seriously, they'll be inheriting an unsustainable mess. James Freeman says Whoever Wins Next Week will have to unpromise some things, spending-wise.

    There’s only one more week to enjoy the soaring inspirational messages of this year’s campaign season. As satisfying as it’s been there remains just one little missing ingredient in America’s nearly perfect election discourse. Both major parties have essentially agreed to ignore Washington’s World War II levels of debt and gargantuan annual deficits in the absence of a national emergency. After next Tuesday Americans will need to come together to pressure the winner to consider fiscal sanity before global investors start applying their own kind of pressure. Investors already seem to be sending a message. The Journal’s Sam Goldfarb reports:

    The prospect of a rising federal budget deficit is fueling a sharp climb in bond yields, with investors betting a challenging fiscal situation will only get worse after the election.
    Treasury yields, which rise when bond prices fall, jumped Monday after a $69 billion government auction of 2-year notes attracted tepid demand from investors. That marked the latest leg in a weekslong bond-market selloff that began after a run of strong economic data undercut bets on rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
    The auctions aren’t poised to get smaller soon. When the Treasury Department releases its quarterly borrowing plans on Wednesday, it will almost certainly maintain record-large debt sales over the next three months. There is also a chance that it could hint that further increases are coming next year, according to some analysts.
    Most investors expect the budget deficit to remain elevated no matter who wins in next week’s elections, with the cost of spending programs such as Medicare and Social Security climbing faster than federal revenues.

    The world’s largest economy and custodian of the world’s reserve currency cannot allow itself to become Argentina.

    If Kamala wins, she will find herself inevitably burdened by what has been: specifically, the past few years' spending spree, and those "promised" entitlements.

  • Pretty sure it's not me. Arnold Kling asks his musical question: What's Holding Up Progress? He mostly reports on what other people are reporting. For example, Scott Alexander:

    Self-driving taxis have a big advantage over self-driving self-owned-cars: they can operate 24-7 and never have to park. If you can switch half the car-using population to robotaxis, you can convert half the parking lots into green space or homes. Nobody wants to ban self-driving car ownership, but some people do want to nudge the marginal commuter into robotaxis so they can reclaim slightly-more-than-half of the parking lots instead of slightly-less.

    As Glenn Reynolds says every so often: Faster, please.