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May 28, 2025
Keeping Terrorists Off Airbnb Shouldn’t Undermine Americans’ Privacy
here’s a certain irony in completing the financial surveillance procedures the government requires Airbnb to impose on its hosts. Right along with snapping and submitting a selfie for automatic verification against the required government-issued identification, Airbnb occasionally asks for a guest’s country of citizenship, too. It is literally the United States, but is it really the…
April 28, 2025
Deregulation can cure the tariff hangover
Democrats think they have found their 2026 campaign message: President Trump equals chaos. Ironically, that perception presents an opportunity for Mr. Trump if he uses it to deliver stable, economically grounded governance. Restoring clear, rational regulation that encourages investment and growth is a good place to start. Economic confidence is faltering. The Economist reports that public approval of Mr. Trump’s handling…
April 23, 2025
What Would a US Tariff on Chips Look Like?
The US government will be “taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN”, President Donald Trump recently declared. Given his repeated promises to impose a tariff on imported chips, we must assume some action is coming. But what type, and to what end? According to trade data, the US imports around $30bn…
April 21, 2025
Silicon Valley’s Consumer Eugenics
The orchid was once an expensive, highly cultivated symbol of refinement; now, cheaper cultivars can be found in almost any grocery store. Perhaps that makes it a fitting image for a new fertility company, Orchid Health, that seeks to encourage parents to breed better children. Orchid Health is one of several Silicon Valley start-ups that…
April 15, 2025
Making DOGE Constitutional
The “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) has been hard to pin down. In the wake of last year’s election, Elon Musk and his erstwhile partner, Vivek Ramaswamy, gestured toward some of the effort’s contradictory impulses in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees,” they insisted. But “unlike government…
January 15, 2025
Goodbye and Good Riddance to Meta Fact-Checking
The decision last week by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, to immediately stop using “fact checkers” — groups hired by Meta to determine what information is true and what is false, and thuswhat should be removed — represents not just a return to common sense but also good news for both science and…