A Dispatch From the AI Psychosis Summit
Digital artists, Claude devotees, and aspiring builders embraced AI obsession in NYC.
New York City
Self-Checkout Is Under Fire Across the Country. Is Theft Really the Reason?
The restrictions are often framed as a crime prevention measure. But the fine print points to a different motivation: adding union jobs.
Is The Devil Wears Prada 2 the Great Millennial Journalism Movie?
This 20-years-later sequel traces a generation's economic fortunes through the decline of magazine journalism.
Even Laws That Haven't Passed Can Have Unintended Consequences
Mere proposals can change the risk calculus for business and investors. Politicians, and the public, should be wary.
Taxing the Rich
Plus: New York City's persistent budget problems, the crony capitalist scramble for Venezuelan oil, senseless trafficking PSAs, and more...
A $33 Burger? As New York City Eyes $30 Minimum Wage, Restaurants Brace for Impact
The proposal would eliminate the tipped-wage credit and send labor costs skyrocketing in an industry notorious for its tight margins.
Can Zohran Mamdani Make NYC Affordable?
Zephyr Teachout and John Ketcham debate the mayor of the Big Apple.
Pittsburgh Thinks the NFL Draft Is Worth $19 Million of Taxpayer Money. Here's What Past Draft Data Say.
Plus: NFL draft rookies get screwed by the players union, and governments are charging a ton to get to the World Cup
The Bipartisan War on Cheap Food
Republicans and Democrats preach about food affordability. Yet their policies continue to make it worse.
Mamdani's Fix for Food Deserts: Opening a $30 Million City-Owned Grocery Store Near Other Grocery Stores
New York City plans to open five city-owned grocery stores by 2029.
Strait Talk
Plus: Mamdani vs. self-driving cars, blue state wealth and exit taxes, Hillary Clinton's awful affordability agenda, and more...
'They're Going To Go Elsewhere': Steve Forbes on Why Taxing the Rich Backfires
"For the first time since California came into the union," the publisher and businessman says, "they're having out-migration."
America's Deeply Unserious Federal Government Is Becoming a Real Problem
From long TSA lines to air traffic control issues to the chaotic war in Iran, it's all the result of a government that won't take its powers or responsibilities seriously.
Mamdani Might Raid a Severely Underfunded Retiree Fund To Balance New York City's Bursting Budget
While he admits New York is facing a “serious fiscal crisis,” Mamdani’s solutions won’t actually fix it.
NYC Spent Over $368 Million To Combat Homelessness This Past Fiscal Year. Now the State Can't Track the Money.
The Big Apple is spending more than ever on services for the unsheltered, but state auditors don’t know if it’s working.
Tax the Rich All You Want. It Won't Fix the Deficit.
The problem is not that the government collects too little. It's that the government spends too much.
NYC Transit Just Got Rid of MetroCards for Fares. The Successor Could Put Your Privacy at Risk.
Unlike the MetroCard, the OMNY system requires train and bus riders in New York City to give their name and phone number to the government.
CNN Retracts Terrible Post About Alleged Terrorists at New York City Mayor's Mansion
"In less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs."
Mamdani's 'Rental Ripoff' Hearings Won't Fix New York Housing
Demonizing landlords might make for good social media, but it does nothing to reduce the regulations that make New York housing so expensive.
The 'Fairness' Law That Could Raise Grocery Prices for New Yorkers
Legislators are trying to pass their own state version of an outdated antitrust law—one that is dead at the federal level for a reason.
Sunnyside Yards and the Errors of Pro-Growth Progressivism
Plus: New Jersey property owners survive an eminent domain attempt based on bogus blight allegations, a corporate homebuyer ban is slipped into Congress' housing bill, and the true cost of permitting in L.A.
Zohran Mamdani's $70 Million Grocery Gamble
Amid a $5.4 billion budget deficit, the mayor of New York City is pushing forward with a proposal that has historically yielded terrible results.
Mamdani To Increase NYC Property Taxes by 9.5 Percent To Balance Budget if Income Taxes Are Not Raised
So much for "the warmth of collectivism."
Austerity Socialism
What's a "tax the rich" mayor going to do when he can't actually tax the rich?
Florida Embraces New Urbanist Mega-Developments
Plus: Zohran Mamdani's rent rip-off hearings exclude public housing tenants, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is a "yes" on rent control, and the intersection of zoning and qualified immunity.
In Mamdani's War on Delivery Apps, New Yorkers Are the Collateral Damage
New York City's own past policies are to blame for much of the gig economy drama, which Mayor Mamdani will further exacerbate.
Blame Overregulation for High Child Care Costs
Politicians like New York’s Mayor Mamdani promise to solve a problem that they created.
Wealth Taxes Are Proven Failures. Will California Take Note?
Across advanced economies, they have repeatedly been narrowed or even repealed after delivering disappointing revenue, tax avoidance, capital flight, and costly administrative battles.
The Private Sector Handles Hunger Better Than Mamdani Could
Polymarket’s pop-up grocery and Kalshi’s food money giveaways are the latest examples in New York’s decades-long history of food charity.
Why Mamdani's 'Free Child Care' Won't Work
The more the government intervenes in the market, the more New York parents pay for child care.
Free Nations Don't Have To Care About the Whims of Elected Officials
Limited government means those in power can do limited damage to the rest of us.
What Mamdani Gets Wrong About the NYC Nurses Strike: State Regulations, Not Greed, Are the Problem
Zohran Mamdani had a chance to pursue health care reform in the New York State Assembly. He didn’t take it.
Why Do People Want The Right To Die?
Is Medical Aid in Dying a fundamental right? Or a slippery slope toward state-supported suicide?
Why Can't New York Get Rid of 2-Person Subway Crews?
Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill mandating two-person subway crews, but union contracts and bipartisan support ensure New Yorkers will keep paying for them anyway.
Minnesota Daycare Fraud, Mamdani's Takeover, and the X-Men Movies
Robby Soave and Christian Britschgi discuss Nick Shirley's viral video about Minnesota day care fraud, then dig deeper into how Tim Walz has little respect for American taxpayers.
A Socialist Swearing In
Plus: the limits of Zohran Mamdani's ability to ruin New York, Trump's National Guard withdrawal, and a deadly New Year's blaze in Switzerland
Will Zohran Mamdani Defund New York City Police?
The new mayor is keeping Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on the job, but they might have a contentious relationship.
NYC Schools Are Losing Students and Burning Cash. Mamdani Could Make the Situation Worse.
New York schools need more choice and better curricula, but the city's new mayor wants to take choices away.
Zohran Mamdani Can't Ruin New York City
Mayors come and go, but New York City remains fundamentally itself.
Zohran Mamdani Didn't Run on 'Affordability.' He Ran Against Prices.
Price controls don't solve economic problems; they disguise them. Prices are messages, and Mamdani wants to shoot the messenger.
Is Zohran Mamdani Coming Around to Housing Deregulation?
New York's new mayor has moved away from some of his far-left beliefs, acknowledging that private businesses play an important role in homebuilding.
Mamdani's $6 Billion Child Care Expansion Would Be a Handout to Wealthy New Yorkers
The more the government intervenes in the market, the more New York parents pay for child care.
New New York: February/March 2025 Puzzle
"Plank of Zohran Mamdani's platform that's likely to worsen housing shortages"
Mamdani Needs a Maximalist Vision of Mayoral Power To Achieve His Goals. Lina Khan Has a Plan.
As one of Mamdani's top advisers, Khan has been making a list of all the "authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy."
Zohran's Inner Circle: Meet the Radicals on Mamdani's Transition Team
The new mayor's advisers include people who have praised antisemites and called for defunding the police.
