Now is the time to admit that easy-money policy and corporate bailouts—imposed in the name of increasing homeownership—has only made housing more unaffordable.
Today we discuss the president's dinner with Bibi Netanyahu and the clear bond between the two—and Trump's consistent support for Israel over his two terms. And we relate it to the surprising turn on Ukraine, with Trump now saying he will send weapons there and disavowing his own administration's withholding of arms. Give a listen.
President Trump cracked down on the latest version of the LA riots by calling in the National Guard. However, much of the violence that accompanied those riots came courtesy of government actors.
Is misinformation really a new crisis—or just the latest chapter in a centuries-old debate over truth, speech, and power? In this episode, Cato Institute’s Jennifer Huddleston and David Inserra unpack the cultural and policy panic surrounding misinformation and disinformation in the age of AI, deepfakes, and viral tweets. Who should decide what counts as truth online? Plus, why humility, media literacy, and a competitive internet might be better solutions than censorship.
Don‘t kid ourselves. The federal government is hurtling toward disaster with its destructive activities underwritten by the Federal Reserve System. It‘s best that we know how to protect ourselves from the consequences.
Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani are both proof of how the ability to capture attention is power. And the attention economy isn’t reshaping just politics; it’s also reshaping the actual economy: the crypto market, A.I. venture capital, and how people, especially Gen Z, are making career decisions. Kyla Scanlon has emerged as a leading theorist on the economics of attention and is herself a member of Gen Z. She is the author of the book “In This Economy?” and Kyla’s Newsletter on Substack. I asked her on the show to walk us through her theory of the attention economy.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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Right-wing influencers and conspiracy theorists lose it over a Justice Department memo that says there’s no evidence Jeffrey Epstein had a “client list” or blackmailed his associates. Criticism of DOGE’s cuts to the National Weather Service resurface after catastrophic floods hit central Texas. In a Fourth of July ceremony, President Trump signs his disastrous economic plan into law. Jon and Tommy break down the Medicaid cuts, ICE funding, and the highly unusual tax breaks that made it into the final “Big Beautiful Bill.” Then they check in on Elon Musk’s growing threat to launch a new political party, and they discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s allegation that he was tortured in El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison.
Twentieth and twenty-first century monetary history shows us how our government, step-by-step, removed the monetary gold standard and introduced their fiat paper currency dollar to fund their increasing political power.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is now law. It's expected to cost the government a pretty penny. The Congressional Budget Office predicts a $3.4 trillion increase in the deficit over ten years. This is driven by significant tax cuts, including extensions of those made in 2017.
Trump's advisors argue the tax cuts will pay for themselves. Today on the show, we speak with the guru on that school of thought, Arthur Laffer, and dig into some of those claims with a tax economist.
Related episodes: The simple math of the big bill (Apple / Spotify) What's going to happen to the Trump tax cuts? (Apple / Spotify) So, how's this No Tax On Tips thing gonna go? (Apple / Spotify)
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Tim Faust returns to the show to look at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its dire consequences for American medicine. We discuss Medicaid as a load-bearing feature of our healthcare infrastructure, how this bill will affect millions of Americans using the program, and the potential ways forward in the wake of its evisceration. We also look at last week’s absolute omnishambles article on Zohran’s college admission, a perfect encapsulation of the Failing New York Times approach to just about everything.
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