Free trade, competition and small govt

'Legislative history reveals the Act was the outcome of powerful legislators protecting their shipping interests at the expense of three colonized territories denied a vote in the Congress that passed it. At a moment when tariffs have returned to the center of American political debate, revisiting the Act’s history reminds us that some tariffs never left'

#politicalEconomy #usPol #freeTrade

https://lpeproject.org/blog/a-century-of-colonial-tariffs/

Why does everything feel unstable even when systems are “working”?
Because modern institutions increasingly separate power from responsibility.

This essay calls the pattern the Great Decoupling & traces it across finance, platforms, housing, and governance—then lays out concrete design principles for re‑coupling accountability into systems themselves.
When no one is responsible, responsibility disappears.

https://thinkingprospectus.substack.com/p/the-great-decoupling-how-incentives

#Accountability #Institutions #SystemDesign #PoliticalEconomy

“The U.S. — and to some extent China — now has a potentially insurmountable lead in owning the world’s foundational AI models. That doesn’t mean other countries can’t develop their own robust AI ecosystems with fine-tuned technology built on top of those models. It does mean, however, that countries that do so will be increasingly dependent on a small number of American and Chinese firms. That leaves them vulnerable to shifting geopolitical winds and the risk that these companies might one day swallow their global competitors whole.

Even as global leaders and entrepreneurs outside the West scramble for some measure of self-determination by rushing to build their own “sovereign AI” ecosystems from scratch, their fate may be sealed.

“What we’re seeing [is] this kind of grandstanding bluster, like, ‘We can compete. We can build our own AI startup ecosystem,’ which doesn’t feel like it’s fully calling out the elephants in the room,” Kak said.

Just over three years on from the public release of ChatGPT, nearly every data point available about our AI era tells a startling story of geographic resource concentration.”

https://restofworld.org/2026/us-ai-investment-global-funding-gap/

#AI #USA #VentureCapital #PoliticalEconomy #BigTech

Vienna. Tokyo. Land value tax. New cities. Remote work. Slums.
Six real-world proofs that the housing crisis is neither accidental nor inevitable — followed by a warning about where cities go if power remains unchanged.

Read Essay ⬇️
https://thinkingprospectus.substack.com/p/six-proofs-and-a-warning-a-synthesis

#HousingCrisis #UrbanPolicy #HousingAsAPublicGood #ZoningReform #LandValueTax #PoliticalEconomy #Cities #Affordability #NIMBYism #UrbanPlanning

excellent new ep of #TheDigRadio :

"Aslı Bâli, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, and Nicholas Mulder on the #economicWarfare unfolding with the US-Israeli #warOnIran—and beyond."

https://thedigradio.com/podcast/economic-warfare-w-asli-bali-esfandyar-batmanghelidj-nicholas-mulder/
#Iran #IranWar #USpol #USMiddleEastPolicy #imperialism #politicalEconomy #geopolitics #sanctions #USsanctions #sanctionsOnIran #dollarImperialism

The Weird Paradox: We could work less - but don't.

We already reached: productivity levels Keynes predicted for leisure

But instead: 👉 we kept working?!

#WorkParadox
#PostWork
#FutureOfWork
#AutomationEconomy
#MeaningOfWork
#FalseFreedom
#PoliticalEconomy

Wen ein Einblick in die politische Ökonomie Russlands interessiert möge Elvira Bary zuhören:

https://youtu.be/hrKcIe5kQxU

#PoliticalEconomy #Russia

MUST READ ARTICLE:

"Opinion remains divided on exactly what the second Trump administration represents. Its arbitrary resort to tariffs and flagrant disregard for international norms has prompted many to condemn the supposed sabotage of Pax Americana—what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described as a decisive “rupture” with the post-war multilateral system. Others, citing the administration’s foreign policy on the Middle East and its obedience to financial speculators, see as much continuity as change. Yet regardless of their emphasis, most commentators invoke the standard of a “rules-based international order” against which to measure the current state of global instability and insecurity.

The reality, though, is that such “ruptures” have been a recurrent feature of global governance for decades. If we are to fully understand Trump, and imagine how we might replace the world he symbolizes with a more just and stable one, we must recognize the extent to which the previous period of supposed order has, contra Carney, been a succession of US-led experiments in hegemonic destruction and reinvention. Only then will the contours of a more equitable international settlement begin to reveal themselves."

https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/rupture-what-rupture/

#USA #Imperialism #PoliticalEconomy #Hegemony #Neocolonialism #Geopolitics #InternationalLaw

Dubai’s skyline is a marvel—and a mask. This essay argues the “Dubai model” is a rentier extraction system powered by the kafala labour regime, anti‑city urbanism, financial opacity, and U.S. security guarantees. Exporting it replicates spectacle without development.

Read: https://thinkingprospectus.substack.com/p/the-dubai-model-spectacle-servitude

#Dubai #Urbanism #Labour #Geopolitics #CityDesign #AntiCity #Transport #Housing #CriticalUrbanism #Gulf #Labour #PoliticalEconomy #Migration #Geopolitics #UrbanDevelopment #Gulf