The economy has been growing steadily since we started to recover from the 2020 pandemic and shutdown; the unemployment rate is and has been near the bottom of the range normally considered to be full employment; and, wages adjusted for inflation are the highest they’ve ever been. Nevertheless, the productivity slowdown observed by Robert Solow forty years ago seems to have returned, and surveys of consumer confidence are at or near their all-time lows. This essay explores possible reasons for the productivity slowdown and widespread economic uncertainty in the midst of our AI boom.

20 July 2026

The United States' air defenses are struggling to defend against attacks from Iran. The Pentagon reported that Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on a military base in Jordan killed two American service members, as air defenses failed to keep up.

20 July 2026

Targeting military assets isn’t going to wreck the global economy, but targeting key infrastructure could. The damage that has already been done to oil and natural gas infrastructure in the Middle East is going to take years to fully repair and rebuild. But so far, the damage that has been done has been somewhat limited. If both sides decide to start conducting all-out attacks on oil and gas infrastructure, the world would be facing an unprecedented energy crisis with no end in sight. Unfortunately, it appears that such a scenario could potentially be ahead of us.

20 July 2026

The Department of War has delayed a full review of a U.S. airstrike that struck an elementary school in Iran, killing at least 168 civilians, according to a CNN report published July 8, 2026. [1]

19 July 2026

Israel has proposed a radical idea: to use crocodiles to guard prisons. The Jewish state has reportedly reclassified Nile crocodiles as “tended” animals, which could clear the way for the animals' use as part of prison security.

18 July 2026

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday that it had struck U.S. Navy facilities in Bahrain and warned that regional oil and gas exports could be blocked entirely in response to American attempts to control the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC accused Washington of acting like 'pirates' by restricting energy flows in the region. 'Regional oil and gas exports are either for everyone or for no one,' the IRGC said in a statement [1].

17 July 2026

The United States ruling class has launched another series of overnight strikes in Iran, reportedly hitting civilian infrastructure, including several bridges across the Islamic Republic. Tehran had already threatened that further escalation would have consequences for the entire region when the US launched these attacks.

17 July 2026

In the mid-1990s, Microsoft stood atop the high-tech world, and its founder and chairman, Bill Gates, had guru status among his fellow Americans. Microsoft had recently come out with its own Windows program, allowing it to compete with Apple Computer’s system and giving his company a huge advantage in the cutthroat world of technology. Gates was interested in furthering Microsoft’s fortunes, not its political ones. Michael Kinsley writes:

17 July 2026

Now, we are going to see what really happens to the global economy when the Strait of Hormuz is completely closed for an extended period of time. Before the war, approximately 45 percent of all Asian oil imports traveled through the Strait of Hormuz.

16 July 2026

Morale in the United States was lower during the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Unfortunately, many Americans were not feeling very festive or positive about the US.

16 July 2026