Policy News You Need To Know

#TheEconomy — Inflation-adjusted GDP growth was 2.3% in Q4 last year, according to the latest official figures. This is not a bad number, certainly, but could be higher.

#Politics — Center-left group Third Way has a memo out addressed "to every Democrat pondering a 2028 Presidential run" urging them to "reject the pledges," by which they mean the pledges forced upon officeholders by far-left Democrat activists. This is good advice, and it would be good for America to have the Democratic Party return to sanity.

#Tariffs — Per announcements made by the President, many tariffs, particularly on Canada, Mexico, and China, are set to come online next week—February 1. But there are many devils in the details (exemptions? partial tariffs?) and there might be an off-ramp. WSJ has the story.

#Tariffs — Speaking of: according to Tax Foundation analysis, "25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports plus 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports would raise taxes by $111 billion in 2025 and shrink US output by 0.4% before retaliation. Several industries would experience severe disruption, including autos, oil & gas, and agriculture."

#DEI #ESG — Good update by Douglas Holtz-Eakin on a pending lawsuit on ESG. "Spence v. American Airlines (AA) is a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of participants in AA’s 401(k) plan. It asserts that AA breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by selecting retirement fund managers that allegedly have 'ESG objectives.'" As Holtz-Eakin notes, "ERISA has two guidelines for employers: the duty of prudence, which governs the proper processes in plan management, and the duty of loyalty, which focuses on actions that place participants’ interests above those of their employers." It will be interesting to follow this lawsuit, though he correctly notes that "as a practical matter, the great love affair with ESG investment appears to be over."

#AI — Congress has banned staff use of DeepSeek. Probably prudent.

Friday Essays

Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute (watch our podcast here) has written on his Substack a very interesting book review which is about a pet preoccupation of your correspondent: the WASP dominance of America, and how and why it came to end.

Last week, we found out about the "Zizians", which seems to be a transgender/antifa murder cult based in the Bay Area. Yes, that sequence of words. According to independent scholar Justin Murphy, "their ideological motivation is militant utilitarianism—things like 'AI Safety' but especially animal welfare […] Basically, given the total pain that humans inflict on animals, humans should be killed (they say there should be "Nuremberg Trials" for animal eaters)." Apparently, they have been a "thing" in the Bay Area rationalist scene for several years. "In 2019, [cult leader] Ziz and four followers staged a masked confrontation with police at a CFAR alumni reunion, then things escalated this month when members Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt engaged in a fatal shootout with Border Patrol in Vermont. Those two were then also charged with a murder in Vallejo, also this month." Veteran independent journalist Andy Ngo has a longer report out in the New York Post.