RFK Jr. Donor Tim Mellon Is Smeared as "Racist"

Why Martha Stewart, Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, and Michael Milken deserve RBG awards

Bret Stephens on 10 American ideas

"I Can't Read This Damn Teleprompter," Trump Complains

Why Steve Levitt is leaving the University of Chicago

What Richard Haass got wrong

Don't Just Deter Iran, Help Free It.

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Dear FutureOfCapitalism reader:

Thank you for being a loyal FutureOfCapitalism.com reader and supporter. I'm excited to share some changes that will accelerate the spread of our vision and increase our impact:

1. The FutureOfCapitalism.com and Smartertimes.com email newsletters are merging into a single new publication called The Editors. This new name reflects a wider editorial focus on trustworthy information and analysis defending and expanding freedom and prosperity.

2. The Editors will be hosted on the Substack technology platform. You may already be familiar with Substack as many prominent writers, editors, and thinkers—"Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds, "EconTalker" Russ Roberts, historians of Israel Michael Oren and Daniel Gordis, "Grumpy Economist" John Cochrane, "Free Press" founder Bari Weiss—are on it.

A February 28, 2024, Wall Street Journal news article reports, "If Schiff faces Garvey, however, he is virtually guaranteed victory in the heavily Democratic state. No Republican has won statewide office in California since 2006." As of February 20, 2024, Democrats are about 10 million of the state's 22 million registered voters, or less than half. The election is some months away. A lot can happen between now and then. A Republican victory is unlikely, but just because it hasn't happened since 2006 doesn't mean it won't happen ever again. Republicans have recently been winning some competitive House seats in California. The thing about politics is there are no guarantees. Nothing ruins a guarantee like the complacency and corruption that come with one-party governments. They tend eventually to create counterreactions.

We've been tracking the migration from high-tax, high-regulation states such as New York and California to lower-tax, lower-regulation states like Florida and Texas. The latest to move is actor Sylvester Stallone of "Rocky" and "Rambo" fame. "Welcome to the Free State of Florida," the state's first lady commented.

A Wall Street Journal front-page retrospective and interview with the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, says of McConnell, "He also shepherded Trump's sole major legislative accomplishment, the 2017 tax bill, through the Senate."

It seems strange to contend, in a news article, that the tax bill was Trump's "sole major legislative accomplishment." You could make a strong case that the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill enacted in 2018, and the CARES Act, a March 2020 Coronavirus relief and stimulus bill, also qualify as major legislative accomplishments, as did the follow-up Covid-19 aid measures passed during Trump's presidency. Trump also signed into law a bill creating the 988 suicide prevention hotline, which has received more than 8 million calls, texts, and chats since launch.

Where were the editors? It'd be easy enough to just dial this back to: "He also shepherded a major Trump legislative accomplishment, the 2017 tax bill, through the Senate."

In a December 5, 2023 New York Sun column I argued that "The War Against the Jews Is a War Against Capitalism."

Since then, additional data points have accumulated. Some highlights, or lowlights:

On February 7, 2024, in Manhattan, BNY Mellon's New York headquarters is attacked by anti-Israel protesters.

On February 27, 2024, the Washington Free Beacon reports on Mohamed Abdou, who is the Arcapita Visiting Professor in Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University for Spring 2024. The Free Beacon notes that "While Abdou has already worked to organize anti-Israel protests at Columbia, he encourages those who oppose the Jewish state to go further. 'DON'T just go to Pro-Palestinian rallies DON'T just post on social media,' he wrote in November. 'ORGANIZE revolutionary alternatives to capitalism...'"

The White House released a six page memo with the subject "President Biden's current health summary." It makes no mention of any cognitive or memory issues. That's not to say there are not any such issues, just that there is no mention of them in the memo.

Relatedly, from a recent New York Times Magazine interview with Marilynne Robinson: "You have to live to be 80 to find this out: Anybody under 50 feels they're in a position to condescend to you. You get boxed into this position where people who deal with you are making assumptions about your intellect. It's very disturbing. Most people my age are just fine. What can I say?"

Under the headline, "Boston Faces $1 Billion Tax Deficit from Faltering Office Market," Bloomberg reports, "without a meaningful uptick in office demand, the city is on track for an annual collection shortfall of roughly $500 million starting in 2029, around 10% of total revenues, the report said. At the state level, Massachusetts tax revenues have missed budget forecasts for seven straight months through January."

Massachusetts imposed a new state millionaire tax this year after voters narrowly approved a ballot resolution heavily backed by the teachers unions. As I predicted, it hasn't produced the state revenue windfall that its proponents gave the misleading impression would be forthcoming.

Clive Crook writes in Bloomberg: "Republicans want lower taxes and lower spending. Democrats want higher spending and higher taxes (on companies and the rich). How to strike a deal? Easy. Cut taxes and raise spending – hence higher borrowing." That sounds like it makes sense, but when you look at the numbers over the past few decades the pattern actually doesn't empirically hold up.