Category Archives: Uncategorized

What a cool homage and great remake of a Billy Joel classic!

Today (17 April) is the 64th anniversary of the “Bay of Pigs” invasion for the liberation of Cuba. Building on previous accounts of this covert and controversial operation (see here, here, or here, for example), last year I wrote a … Continue reading →

Via Wikipedia (links and footnotes in the original), I stumbled upon this remarkable anecdote of the time when Mario Vargas Llosa punched Gabriel García Márquez in the face: “In 1971, Vargas Llosa published García Márquez: Story of a Deicide (García Márquez: historia … Continue reading →

Did you know that literary giant Mario Vargas Llosa was once the leading presidential candidate in the 1990 Peruvian general election? Although Vargas Llosa won the first round with a narrow plurality, his opponent, Alberto Fujimori, won the election in the … Continue reading →

I was first introduced to the great Mario Vargas Llosa in college — I was a Spanish literature and political philosophy major — and instantly became a fan of his classical liberal politics and a lifelong reader of his works. … Continue reading →

Via Wikipedia: “If I Didn’t Love You” is a song recorded by country music singers Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood, released on July 23, 2021, as the first single from Aldean’s 2021 studio album Macon, Georgia …

Conclusion: A Smithian Defense of Donald Trump’s Trade Madness? I will conclude my “Smith versus Trump” series today by explaining why, when it comes to trade policy, Adam Smith and Donald Trump might be on the same page, after all. … Continue reading →

Previously (see here), I explained why Adam Smith’s so-called “humanitarian” exception to free trade does not apply to President Donald Trump’s despotic “liberation day” anti-trade decree. Simply put, Smith’s humanitarian argument applies only to tariffs that are already in place, … Continue reading →

[Update: Yesterday afternoon (9 April), President Trump reduced his country-specific tariffs down to a universal 10% rate for all trade partners, except for China. See here, here, and here. Note: Trump’s universal 10% baseline rate went into effect today; only … Continue reading →