Citizen Writers Fighting Censorship by Helping Americans Understand Issues Affecting the Republic.
March Madness is done. Monday night, the Michigan Wolverines held off the UConn Huskies for the NCAA basketball title, and college free agency, otherwise known as “The Transfer Portal,” is now open and active.
What is FERC, you ask?:
“FERC’s Mission: Assist consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts.”
“Privatize the profit – socialize the costs?” You betcha.
Utility companies are their own personalized legal black hole. Private companies own them – but get all sorts of government cronyism to aid and abet their profit making and taking.
It’s a quintessential example of the Diet Fascism that now dominates the US.
We like to pretend we live in a fierce two-party system. Red vs. blue. Left vs. right. Cable news gladiators screaming like it’s the Super Bowl of righteousness. But step back far enough and the illusion fades. What you actually see is one bird with two wings—and that bird doesn’t care about your values, your vote, or your virtue. It worships one thing: money.
SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler argues that President Donald Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts Act is facilitating growth among small businesses on ‘Kudlow.’
Bloomberg’s Benedikt Kammel discusses the impact of the two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran on airlines and the implications for jet fuel prices and air fares.
Some weekends are about business. Some weekends are about golf. And then there are weekends where surviving another biological assassination attempt, fighting through CPAC, dodging the media, and still finding time for cigars, Old Fashioneds, and American grit all come together. This was one of those weekends. Front and center on THE Chuck’s table …
We hoped to stop the frightening inflation. We succeeded. Then we were asked to return prices to the way they used to be. That’s a taller order, but surprisingly, in some ways, we are making headway in that direction.
Cheap, abundant oil lubricates the economy. Gasoline and diesel is cheaper. Which means everything delivered in vehicles running on gasoline and diesel is cheaper. Which is pretty much everything.
The price of a gallon on gas is not set by multi-billion-dollar corporations. It’s set by local businesses.
Oregon’s small-business scene just lived through its roughest year in more than a decade, and Portland-area operators are feeling it on every block. A spike in bankruptcies in 2025 hit storefronts, suppliers and nonprofits alike, squeezing already thin margins for mom-and-pop shops.
Let’s retire the fairy tales.
The U.S. dollar is not backed by gold. It’s not backed by “faith.” It’s not backed by vibes. It’s backed by power — specifically the kind of power that sails in carrier strike groups, negotiates trade deals, controls sea lanes, writes sanctions law, insures shipping, and can ruin your economy before your stock market even opens.
American businesses are managing the changing tariff landscape by attempting re-shoring projects, but in their hurry, are they remembering to fully manage the other issues raised by re-shoring?
The cost of military action is real. But there are times – and the Iran situation is exactly such a time – when the cost of inaction is infinitely greater than the cost of action.
The reciprocal and fentanyl tariffs have been overturned, and the Trump administration is responding. How should the individual business respond to this latest disruption?
There’s stolen valor — the guy at the bar wearing medals he never earned, hoping nobody asks what unit he was in. Then there’s stolen charity — the polished executive in a tailored suit wearing patriotism like a lapel pin while cashing checks “for the troops.” One lies about serving. The other lies about serving those who served. Both are frauds. Only one gets invited to donor banquets.
So we keep building Towers of Babel—just with better branding, larger budgets, and more acronyms. Corporations, governments, military bureaucracies, international institutions—all convinced that if we just add one more layer, one more committee, one more compliance office, the tower will finally reach heaven.
Soon, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Trump’s use of IEEPA provisions in the creation of “reciprocal tariffs.” How they rule is at least in part based on a single question: Does the current state of the American economy constitute an “emergency?”
I am a conservative, who thinks decades’ worth of a lack of proper antitrust enforcement – has been a key component in the downfall of America.
Oil was a critical resource we were running out of, until we were not running out. Same with Lithium.