Media worth consuming – February 2025

Top Six Articles

Is Trump living in a disinformation bubble or is Zelensky a corrupt dictator?

Ronald Reagan explained why government spending so often isn’t wise, careful or fair.

A long argument that when all of the costs are included, Australian residential real estate has underperformed stocks and bonds.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers asked landlords to pass on the interest rate cut to renters, but his government’s record-breaking migration is the primary reason residential rents have soared.

Finance

Inflation and inflation expectations have risen in the US, making further rate cuts unlikely in the near term. Vanguard has announced a wave of fee reductions, bringing its average fee to 0.07%. A detailed explanation of how weak covenants have allowed corporate borrowers to extract value from lenders.

Nikola, the infamous EV truck manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy. China is working on another round of stimulus aimed at boosting local government loans and bank capital. A North Korean hacker group is alleged to have carried out a $1.4 billion crypto theft.

Politics & culture

JD Vance castigated European politicians for walking away from Western values while expecting America to provide security for them at great expense. Germany’s police and prosecutors are gladly prosecuting their citizens for online insults. Allegations have been made that Soros funded groups exert a high level of control over American prosecutors whose election campaigns they financed.

The winner of Romania’s cancelled presidential election was arrested on misinformation and campaign finance charges and has been restricted in his ability to campaign for the upcoming presidential election. Italy’s free home renovations programs is another example of how “free money” schemes cost taxpayers a fortune. Thirty-three Illinois counties voted to secede and join neighbouring Indiana, seeking to escape the corruption, high taxes and waste that Illinois is famous for. Illegal crossings at America’s southwestern border have dropped over 95% in recent months.

Trump is neither perfect or evil, with much to both like and dislike. An investigation into Chuck Schumer’s rage rhetoric is excessive and risks making Trump’s Department of Justice look politically biased, just as Joe Biden’s DoJ was. A former police officer provides a long list of allegations of corruption in the handling of January 6^th cases. The Trump Administration sacked eight senior FBI officials for their anti-conservative actions, including retaliating against FBI employees who reported their misconduct.

A Republican congresswoman named her former fiancé and several other men as rapists in a speech on the House floor. A Democrat congresswoman claimed women don’t want to work in the manufacturing industry because the word “manufacturing” is sexist, as it contains the word “man”. Apple software was temporarily showing “Trump” when users said “racist” to their phones.

Trump’s budget cuts are very likely to be ruled unconstitutional but a majority of Americans are glad that wasteful government spending and the budget deficit are finally being prioritised. The US government has run a deficit of $840 billion in the last four months with the annual interest expense now over $1.167 trillion. DOGE will need to reform social security, Medicare and Medicaid to bring the US government deficit under control. DOGE’s audit of US government spending has turned the tables with the people now spying on the government. Republican Senator Rand Paul plans to vote against the budget prepared by his own party due to its excessive spending.

Foreign aid often allows corrupt regimes to remain in power, holding back the prosperity of recipient countries. The EU knows it has a productivity problem but believes the answer is more regulation. More evidence from the US shows that increased spending on schools can result in lower reading and math test scores. Low birth rates mean the US must eventually resolve its entitlement crisis.

Economics & work

Poor productivity in Australia’s construction sector is driven by excessive regulation, resulting in too many suits and not enough hard hats. Australia households are borrowing records amounts to buy overpriced homes, then spending 50.6% of their disposable income to service their home loans. 76% of Australians are dissatisfied with unaffordable housing, with 67% supporting a cut in migration to allow the housing stock to catch up with population growth.

Australia needs a migration target set in the best interests of Australians. Australia’s vocational training colleges are a hive of fraud, exploiting international “students” who are keen to obtain visas and work rights. With migration falling, New Zealand’s house prices are heading back towards being affordable.

Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs resulted in the US losing jobs during his first term, with the same outcome expected this time around. The economic outcomes from Brexit have been neutral for the UK but could have been much better if British politicians had seized the opportunity to reduce government spending, taxes and regulation. There’s a remarkably high correlation between economic freedom and very low poverty rates.

Miscellaneous

A 102 minute podcast that argues renewables are a cheaper and better solution than nuclear. Donald Trump Junior’s venture capital fund is helping to raise funding for the “steroid Olympics”. The NBA could face competition for the best players from an upstart league aiming to make basketball more like Formula One.