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My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy is correct that legislators – even those in Oregon who oh-so-sincerely wish to help tenants – cannot suspend the laws of supply and demand.

George Will explains that many Democrats seem to be working hard to re-elect Trump in 2020. A slice:

But today’s flippant talk about reparations illustrates a worsening pattern of behavior among congressional Democrats, including presidential candidates. (Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California and former housing and urban development secretary Julián Castro also express vague openness to reparations.) A quarter-baked idea (reparations, a Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all) is floated. There is a stampede to endorse it before thinking about the idea’s dependence on enormous revenue of unknown origin and/or unavailable technologies. Then, when details, or the lack thereof, reveal the idea’s wild impracticality, the stampeders breezily say: Nevertheless, the idea is virtuous because it is “aspirational.” Which means that the Democratic Party is again assisting, as in 2016, Donald Trump’s electoral aspirations.

I’m shocked! Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a hypocrite.

Let’s all hope that Sen. Mike Lee’s bill to repeal the cronyist Jones Act will soon be enacted.

Scott Sumner bemoans America’s incoherent trade ‘policy.‘ A slice:

China’s probably taken more market opening steps in recent decades than any other economy.  Its imports have grown faster than those of any other economy.

Mark Perry chimes in to calm the absurd fears that many people have about trade deficits.

Inspired by a coffee mug, Jeffrey Tucker busts some myths about trade.

Also busting myths – these about higher education – is Richard Vedder.

Elaine Schwartz reports on a University of Washington study of minimum-wage diktats in Seattle: the news isn’t good if you are among the least-skilled workers in that city.

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