The article argues that retaliatory tariffs are politically costly because they raise domestic prices, and proposes an alternative response: countries should repeal “anticircumvention” laws that criminalize bypassing digital locks on devices and services. It says these laws were adopted under U.S. trade pressure to protect American firms’ profits by blocking third-party repairs, interoperability, alternative app stores, and file-format conversions, and that they no longer serve a purpose if the U.S. abandons tariff-free trade commitments. Repeal would shift hundreds of billions of dollars in extracted rents away from U.S. tech and tech-enabled giants toward domestic competitors and global consumers, including Americans via gray-market tools. The piece highlights likely leaders such as Cana...

The article argues that in 2026 the dollar’s global role will erode faster as countries respond to US sanctions and financial leverage by trading and settling payments in other currencies and through non-Western networks. It points to a reduced US share of global trade, growing use of local-currency settlement and China’s CIPS, and a steady decline in the dollar’s share of global reserves as confidence shifts. US fiscal deficits, current-account imbalances, and strains in the Treasury market’s liquidity—highlighted by the 2020 dysfunction without Fed support—are presented as additional pressures on perceived safety. Rather than one replacement currency, the biggest challenge is seen as alternative payment systems and especially stablecoins, which could become neutral settlement rails if no...

John Heilman and Ezra Klein look back on the political arc of 2025, focusing on how Trump’s second term followed a “flood the zone” attention strategy early on but began losing momentum amid policy chaos, tariff-driven economic pain, unpopular immigration crackdowns, and visible fractures in the Republican coalition. They discuss how Trump’s disinhibition and reliance on attention over coherent governance created self-inflicted crises, leaving Republicans unsure what his agenda is beyond cruelty and spectacle. The conversation also tracks Democrats’ tentative recovery, including winning key 2025 elections, successfully framing fights around healthcare and affordability, and the emergence of new figures who communicate more effectively in today’s media environment. Klein ties these shifts t...

Project 2025, created by the Heritage Foundation as a policy blueprint, implementation plan, and staffing pipeline for a future Trump administration, has become the most influential initiative of Trump’s second term by accelerating a shift toward a more centralized, executive-driven government. The article argues that Trump has used it to justify mass firings and agency shutdowns, weaken environmental and civil-rights enforcement, pursue more aggressive immigration actions, and erode long-standing limits on political control of the Justice Department and independent regulators, with Congress and the Supreme Court often enabling these moves. It also notes limits and contradictions: confirmation and staffing efforts have lagged, overt Christian-nationalist goals have been less prominent than...