THE MADGETTE

TENDING DEMOCRACY

• After Brazil and Serbia’s Elections Project SyndicateLessons from far-right defeats in Brazil and Serbia
• The Spirit of Democracy Remains Strong PersuasionDemocratic victories abroad, and whether they last
• America’s Test PersuasionArgues democracy is more resilient than feared
• The Banker Trying To Save Liberalism PersuasionCarney gives liberalism a moral core against populism
• How American Politics Became a Tower of Babel The Free PressReporting on how the radical fringe reshaped politics
• Madison’s Toleration Law & LibertyMadison as a hard-boiled defender of pluralism
• How Democrats Are Reclaiming the Politics of Populism The New YorkerAnti-corruption populism as a cross-partisan appeal
• Losing and Keeping Republics Law & LibertyPrimer on losing and keeping republics
• Election officials brace for federal interference but expect to persevere Minnesota ReformerLocalized election administration as a safeguard

AGAINST POVERTY & SUFFERING

• Few apartments are open for low-income renters, but cost drops in some cities Minnesota ReformerData on scarce income-restricted rental units
• ‘Medically frail’ Medicaid enrollees won’t have to prove their inability to work to keep coverage Minnesota ReformerRuling shields medically frail from Medicaid work rules
• As predicted, the ACA exchanges seem not to be stable Marginal RevolutionACA exchange premiums up 13 percent, instability
• Health Care Premiums Are Going Up, Again. Here’s What We Can Do Now. NYT OpinionModest reforms that compound into health-cost savings

FINANCE & ECONOMY

• Are economists declining in status? Marginal RevolutionCowen on economists' declining influence
• When the AI Bubble Bursts Project SyndicateBubbles leave infrastructure; debt financing raises the stakes
• The economics of tips Marginal RevolutionLinked payroll data reveals what tipping does
• Expensive Pharmaceuticals for Targeted Diseases Marginal RevolutionEconomics of a gene-therapy cure's price
• A Debtors’ Club for a Fragmented World Project SyndicateDebtor nations organize a counterweight to the Paris Club
• Italy’s ‘exit tax’ plan spooks rich expats Financial TimesExit tax design and capital mobility
• Let China copy American AI The EconomistWhether to ban AI distillation by rivals
• Markets are dismayed by Lula’s surprise win—and for good reason The EconomistWhy markets distrust Lula's mandate

LAW & COURTS

• Are There No Limits to Religious Freedom? NY Review of BooksLimits of religious freedom in state-funded pre-K
• Justice Kagan Sounds an Alarm About the Court NYT OpinionKagan, the institutionalist, sounds an alarm
• Court will hear arguments in January on six-person juries, religious zoning dispute SCOTUSblogSix-person juries and religious zoning at the Court
• Court to hear argument in religious discrimination challenge brought by Catholic preschools in Colorado SCOTUSblogCatholic preschools and Colorado's universal pre-K
• My New Dispatch Article on the Legal Case Against Trump's Section 338 Tariffs Targeting Canadian Imports Volokh ConspiracyLegal case against the Section 338 tariffs
• Justice Kagan: firing point blank in Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos SCOTUSblogArgument analysis in Smith & Wesson v. Mexico
• Fifth Circuit Will Decide En Banc Whether § 230 Preempts Texas Mandates on Social Media Platforms Volokh ConspiracyFifth Circuit en banc on § 230 preemption

IDEAS & LETTERS

• Believing and thinking AeonWhy belief is chosen and thought is not
• In praise of the dilettante AeonDefense of the dilettante against specialization
• The philosopher Bernard Williams refused every ism. That made him hard to pin down. And hard to refute Arts & Letters DailyBernard Williams, who refused every ism
• The Conscious Pariah Lapham's QuarterlyArendt on Zionism, without pigeonholing
• Curiosity is a cure for certainty. It’s also the enemy of humility, modesty, and self-doubt. Adam Phillips explains Arts & Letters DailyAdam Phillips on curiosity versus certainty
• The Time is Right for a ‘Great Books’ Revival The AtlanticThe case for Great Books in the age of AI
• The Wisdom of Charlemagne QuillettePalmer's Charlemagne as scholar as well as warlord
• If AI Thinks for Us, Democracy Will Suffer Project SyndicateOutsourcing analysis to AI endangers democratic judgment
• The rehabilitation of Livia, Augustan Rome’s first lady Engelsberg IdeasReassessing Livia, Augustan Rome's first lady
• What did the Mongols do for Eurasia? Engelsberg IdeasAssessing the Mongols' effect on Eurasia
• How to Waste Time QuilletteEssay on the value of purposeless time

WORLD

• How Putin has split the west Financial TimesThree western camps on dealing with Russia
• Only the Gulf Can End the Iran War Foreign AffairsWhy the Gulf must help end the Iran war

SCIENCE

• The self-making world AeonLamarck's idea of self-making organisms returns

MINNESOTA

• Judge orders Kenis Lopez Gonzalez to be freed, returned to U.S. from Central African Republic Minnesota ReformerJudge orders a wrongly deported Minnesotan returned
• A tech investor spent millions on ads opposing DFLers running for the Minnesota House and Senate MinnPostOutside money's effect on legislative races