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April 29, 2025
Confining Government Power Over Editorial Decisions is Vital
How much authority and leeway should the government––specifically, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)––possess to decide whether news is accurate or distorted and, in turn, to punish broadcasters for the latter? If one starts from the eyes-wide-open dual premises that government officials sometimes act selfishly to serve their own interests (not necessarily those of the public)…
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 28, 2025
A World with Smart AI but Not Human-Level AI
How long, if ever, before we achieve artificial intelligence that can pretty much do everything that a human worker can do currently? My short-hand way of gauging the speculative timeline relies, at least partially, on prediction markets. And the most recent message from them suggests tempering expectations, at least a bit. For example: The current…
April 28, 2025
Why the AI Revolution Will Require Massive Energy Resources
The rapid rise of generative AI has triggered a sharp escalation in data center electricity consumption, with profound implications for national energy use, system planning, and climate goals. Data centers have long been critical infrastructure for digital services, but their energy demand is now accelerating due to the emergence of compute-intensive AI workloads. Data center…
April 25, 2025
The Justice Department’s Case Against Google Should Alarm Every Business Leader
The Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google Search should set off alarms in every boardroom across the country. The case, now entering its remedies phase, signals a troubling shift in American antitrust enforcement away from protecting consumers and toward punishing business models that succeed too well. Here’s the message the DOJ is sending: If your…
April 25, 2025
A NEPA Update from the White House
This past January, the White House issued Executive Order (EO) 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which rescinded EO 11991 from May 1977. For nearly 50 years, EO 11991 served as a foundational document for national environmental law. It established the framework authorizing the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which developed regulations for federal agencies to implement…
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 23, 2025
The Digital Markets Act: A Security Risk for Encrypted Communications
A recent controversy involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presents a sobering, real-world example of the security risks posed by messaging platforms. Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials discussed sensitive military plans over the unsecured Signal app—violating government security protocols. When The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to this group chat, sensitive operational…
April 23, 2025
The FCC’s Misguided Efforts to Police News Trump Disdains
Much is disturbing about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. For starters, he was deported to an El Salvador prison due to what one Republican US Senator recently called “a screw-up” by the Trump administration and what the federal government confessed in a March 31 court filing was “an administrative error.” More troubling, of course,…
April 22, 2025
Which is in Collapse? Administrative Law or REAL ID?
If you’ve ever raised children, you’re familiar with defenses like: “I didn’t hit my brother. My bat did!” We keep kids in whiffle ball until they understand culpability a little better. The upcoming deadline for compliance with our national ID law, REAL ID, has a children’s logic to it. The deadline will not change, we…