The strange evolution of the Democratic Party on economics is that the rank-and-file are now clearly favorable to socialism, and also think taxes are too high.

The Census Bureau’s poverty measure is flawed. It counts 34.5 million Americans as poor while excluding most government benefits, including SNAP, housing aid, school meals, and refundable tax credits. To accurately measure poverty, we need to account for the resources families receive, says Cato’s @RominaBoccia. ow.ly/c7SJ50ZPmLW

America’s corporate governance system is broken, and it’s killing public companies. Look no further than Cracker Barrel: Decades of brutal mismanagement have seen one incompetent CEO after another walk away with a massive paycheck while customers and actual shareholders take a beating. Why does this keep happening? Because proxy advisory firms like ISS are corrupt. They blindly rubber-stamp failing boards year after year, protecting the corporate elite while burning shareholder value to the ground. The root of the rot is index funds. There's no question that indexing one's money is a smart financial move for most people. But just because you passively index your investments doesn't mean your corporate votes should be handed over to the managers of your fund so they can play politics. Right now, passive funds hold massive, unchecked voting blocks while having zero skin in the game themselves. It is time for a simple rewrite of the rules: We need to index the votes of index fund investors. Passive index funds should be forced to automatically split their votes to proportionately mirror those of retail and active institutional shareholders — the people actually doing the research, risking their capital, and fighting for performance in the companies they hold shares in. No more rubber-stamping. A change like this will immediately strip corrupt gatekeepers like ISS of their toxic influence. True accountability happens when lazy, overpaid boards actually answer to the stakeholders they represent, rather than screwing them over. Actual, logic-driven governance when your money is passive happens when your vote passively follows the voting decisions of the actual market. We need to stop letting passive capital protect active incompetence. By stripping index funds of their arbitrary voting power and empowering engaged investors, we will finally torch corporate cronyism and usher American capital markets into a golden age of capitalism.

Just out from the Census Bureau: New evidence shows America's middle class IS shrinking, but it's because more US households are moving into higher income groups over time. The share of High-Income households earning $100,000 or more (in 2025 dollars) has almost tripled since 1967, from 16.5% to 44.7%. The share of Low-Income households earning $35,000 or less has decreased from 29.8% in 1967 to 19.2% last year. The share of Middle-Income households has decreased since 1967 from 53.7% (more than half) to 36.1% (slightly more than one-third). #MovingUp @charlesmurray @swinshi @shellenberger @BradWilcoxIFS @kyleopeterson @WSJopinion @jmhorp @MichaelRStrain @caroljsroth @elonmusk @asymmetricinfo @HMDatMI @HumanProgress

HABLEMOS DE BAJAR IMPUESTOS: La Nación ya empezó: eliminó el impuesto PAIS, eliminó y bajó retenciones y redujo otros tributos distorsivos. Eso impulsa actividad y, vía curva de Laffer, parte de esa mayor actividad vuelve como más recaudación pero que se divide entre la nacion, provincias y municipios. Por eso el reclamo de un pacto fiscal, como plantea Rappallini, es correcto. Pero la crítica, a veces está mal direccionada, la presión ahora debe ir sobre los gobernadores y jefes de gobierno que han aumentado el gaso y no bajan impuestos: el próximo paso indispensable es bajar Ingresos Brutos y tasas municipales. Si provincias y municipios reducen esos impuestos, mejora la actividad, crece la base imponible y también mejora la recaudación nacional. Eso le permitiría a la Nación seguir avanzando sobre otros impuestos distorsivos, como retenciones e impuesto al cheque.

JUST IN: Bernie Sanders unveils the “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act,” which would outlaw AI systems that match or exceed human capabilities, with up to 20 years in prison for violations.

.@SecScottBessent on tariffs refunds: "The Democrat AGs who filed the ridiculous lawsuit against this Administration wanted the money to go back to the payer of record — so that is corporate welfare. The American people had that money, and if I hear another Democrat legislator make the inane remark 'the American people should get the money' — the American people HAD THE MONEY in the U.S. Treasury and we were forced to give it back."