Declining Education Standards - Role of Policymakers

New York Dumbs Down Its Graduates
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/new-york-regents-exams-high-school-graduates-255bf7f9
The Board of Regents nixes its requirement to pass a graduation exam. 

Europe's Immigration Concerns

There’s a Reason Europe Is So Obsessed with Immigration
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/opinion/europe-immigration-ceuta-far-right.html Immigration has become a prism through which all the continent’s ills are viewed. 

US Foreign Policy and Political Corruption

Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/jared-kushners-dollar-diplomacy
Donald Trump’s son-in-law represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. 

MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/10/maga-foreign-policy/688352/
Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.

AI Safety Concerns

The Liftoff Scenario That Terrifies A.I. Doomsayers
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/science/ai-recursive-self-improvement.html
“Recursive self-improvement” is the idea that artificial intelligence could learn to build and train itself, creating exponential new progress — and risk.

Can A.I. “Go Rogue”?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/can-ai-go-rogue
In the wake of turmoil at OpenAI and Anthropic, it’s become common to describe A.I. as a kind of person, hatching plans and pursuing desires. The truth is a little trickier.

How the Clash Between Money and Safety Created a Monumental Crisis for AI
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-anthropic-crisis-money-safety-847bc1d6
OpenAI and Anthropic, in heated competition with each other and China, are racing toward IPOs, even as they admit they could lose control of their bots.
 
We Need a Science of the AI Mind
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/we-need-a-science-of-the-ai-mind-5b1047e4
No, we aren’t doomed, but the models are advancing more quickly than our understanding of them. 

Singapore's Model for Limiting Political Corruption

Benchmarking and bonuses: why Singapore pays its politicians like bankers
https://www.ft.com/content/fa47c0db-18a6-45d6-b35d-75942a0daae8
The city-state has some of the best-paid ministers in the world. 

Populism and American Politics

Populist Republicans and Democratic Socialists Are Starting to Merge
https://www.wsj.com/politics/populist-republicans-and-democratic-socialists-are-starting-to-merge-d6f5917e
Call it the “Horseshoe party.” The extremes in both parties are starting to sound alike in their disdain for capitalism and centrism. 

Backlash Against Big Tech

Big Tech Fooled America Once. The Second Time’s Not Going So Well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/opinion/ai-big-tech-america-politics.html

Misguided Trade Policies Hurt Americans

Wondering How Nuts Trump’s Tariffs Are? Consider Aluminum.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/opinion/trump-aluminum-tariffs-canada.html 

The Metals Lobby’s Big Steal
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/u-s-canada-steel-aluminum-tariffs-8f7cabf1
Americans now pay 75% more for aluminum than the rest of the world, and 64% more for steel.

State of US Manufacturing

US manufacturing is booming — but it’s no thanks to Trump’s tariffs
https://www.ft.com/content/b625e314-ecf9-4385-a687-7a8f8c1bec23
This is not the nostalgic, protectionism-fueled return that the president promised. 

History Lesson: The East India Company

What It Took to Dismantle the Most Powerful Company in the World
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/opinion/ai-power-lobbying-military-britain-east-india-company.html 

Mass Migration - The Case of Spain

Quo Vadis, Hispania? Part One
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/quo-vadis-hispania-part-one/
 
Quo Vadis Hispania? Part Two
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/quo-vadis-hispania-part-two/
Mass immigration is arguably the most important demographic force at play in Europe today. It is also one of the most salient—and polarizing—issues in contemporary European politics. 

When Following the Rules Leads to Disaster
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/ceuta-morocco-crisis-immigration/688149/
A supreme-court decision helped cause the Ceuta disaster.
 
Schengen’s Greatest Failure
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/07/migration-splitting-europe-apart/688137/
The Ceuta crisis is undermining an agreement designed to foster “solidarity.” 

Gen Z and the Job Market

How the Job Market Will Shape the Next Generation
https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/how-the-job-market-will-shape-the-next-generation
Young people are already discontented. It’s not going to get better anytime soon. 

Rise of the Surveillance State

Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/flock-cameras-can-track-every-car-in-america-police-love-them-citizens-dont.html
In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars. 

State of the Trump Economy

Trump economy at 18 months is a tale of shocks, resilience, and signs of stalled progress
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-economy-18-months-is-tale-shocks-resilience-signs-stalled-progress-2026-07-27/
The economy has stalled in many of the areas where Trump said that mass deportations of undocumented people and higher import taxes would trigger a boom, with the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran intensifying some key risks. 

Do Consumer Sentiments Really Matter?

Why economic surveys have lost their relevance
https://www.ft.com/content/1c559e9c-83b8-486c-812f-cb431e6970ce
Distorted by partisan passion and rising inequality, they are a reflection of popular frustrations — not overall growth.

Do We Really Feel This Lousy About the Economy, or Is a Key Survey Broken?
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/do-we-really-feel-this-lousy-about-the-economy-or-is-a-key-survey-broken-06c8c9ca
The University of Michigan is pushing back and defending its widely tracked consumer sentiment gauge. 

Related:
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/americans-are-richer-than-ever--why-are-they-so-angry-87865.html

Profile of María Corina Machado

María Corina Machado’s Opposition in Exile
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/07/27/maria-corina-machados-opposition-in-exile
The Venezuelan politician hoped to become her country’s leader with help from the U.S. The Trump Administration had other priorities. 

Related:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/marco-rubio-is-failing-venezuelan-democracy-by-ricardo-hausmann-2026-07

TDS

Trade Deficit Derangement Syndrome
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trade-deficit-derangement-syndrome-fe3f37d6
Trump isn’t the first to suffer from it, and seeking ‘balance’ in 2026 is as foolish as it was in 1776. 

Trump’s Trade Wars Are Back—Despite the Supreme Court
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trumps-trade-wars-are-backdespite-the-supreme-court-7a889f9a
The president’s proposed use of an obscure Depression-era law shows courts and Congress haven’t curbed Trump’s ambition to impose tariffs at will.

Trump Unveils New Tariffs Designed to Withstand Legal Scrutiny
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/trump-unveils-new-tariffs-designed-to-withstand-legal-scrutiny-21ef4093
The new duties, ranging from 10% to 12.5%, will replace a temporary tariff put in place after the Supreme Court derailed Trump’s trade agenda in February.

Brazil – Risks and Opportunities

Brazil faces unforgiving economics after election
https://www.ft.com/content/d47f9b39-9e78-4034-97a2-1ca8e07e27e8
For investors, that is a reason for engagement, not despair. Brazil trades at humbling valuations. It has some of the world’s highest real interest rates and the currency is at near record lows with the real down 70 per cent over the past 15 years despite an 8 per cent bounce over the past year. If it gets the sequence of economic management right — consolidation, disinflation, then building growth — the country is a compelling opportunity. 

Scandinavia Rethinks Migration

How Sweden is turning back the clock on years of mass migration
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2026/09/13/zverev-vs-shelton-us-open-live-score-latest-mens-final/
Stockholm is giving asylum seekers £46k to leave as its coalition government pushes for ‘net zero migration’.

Sweden squashed migration. The populist right wants to go further
https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/07/16/sweden-squashed-migration-the-populist-right-wants-to-go-further 

Burka to be banned in Danish schools
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/16/burka-faces-ban-in-danish-schools/
Measure aimed at countering ‘parallel societies’ of non-integrated foreigners.

How Denmark’s Social Democrats Are Succeeding with Stricter Immigration Policies
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/magazine/denmark-immigration-policy-progressives.html 
 
Denmark’s uprooting of settled residents from ‘ghettos’ forms part of aggressive plan to assimilate nonwhite inhabitant
https://theconversation.com/denmarks-uprooting-of-settled-residents-from-ghettos-forms-part-of-aggressive-plan-to-assimilate-nonwhite-inhabitants-243424

Debates on Neoliberalism/Capitalism

The End of Neoliberalism
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/15/neoliberalism-globalization-competition-cosmopolitanism-economics-reagan-thatcher/
The virtues it extolled—cosmopolitanism and competition—led to its demise.
 
How the Tech Lords Hacked the Firm
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/elon-musk-and-the-rise-of-the-unaccountable-ceo-by-quinn-slobodian-2026-07
 
Related:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/free-market-capitalism-destroy-us-democracy-by-mordecai-kurz-2026-06