From the politics of shutdowns, to the future of AI-driven infrastructure, to the many ills of NIMBYism, this week’s articles analyze the shifting contours of governance and economics.

This week, Craig Eyermann dissects the 43-day government shutdown of 2025. He shows how it exposed the futility of weaponizing shutdowns and why essential services may need to shift beyond federal control.

Allen Gindler argues that central banks weren’t born from market innovation but political expediency—they’re tools to finance wars and consolidate state power, often at the expense of monetary stability.

Scott Beyer examines how AI-powered digital replicas of infrastructure could revolutionize disaster response and project efficiency, while cautioning about challenges in cost, data quality, and government capacity.

Kristian Fors critiques the efficient market hypothesis, arguing why human biases, structural distortions, and persistent fund outperformance render it an inadequate model of reality.

Lloyd Billingsley recounts the backlash to Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, urging Trump to revive America’s jazz diplomacy tradition as a more enduring legacy of liberty.

Happy reading.

Jonathan Hofer
Managing Editor