The Review of Capital as Power is pleased to announce that Isabella K. Sabatino has won the 2026 CASP Essay Prize for her landmark paper ‘Humbug Labor Values’.
Sabatino's paper unpacks the circularity in Marxist attempts to test the labor theory of value.
capitalaspower.com/2026/03/isab...
Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."
No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.
New study. We had adults place historical figures on the left-right ideological spectrum. Folks most often place history's villains (Hitler, Stalin, etc) as extreme examples of their opponents. But they place heroes (Jesus, MLK, Lincoln) are on their own team. 1/4 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Hegseth needs to stand trial after this as a war criminal. Between this attack and the girls' school, there's no ambiguity. He is responsible for mass murder and must be held accountable.
Netanyahu: ‘These So-Called Genocide Experts Have Probably Never Committed A Genocide In Their Lives’ https://theonion.com/netanyahu-these-so-called-genocide-experts-have-probably-never-committed-a-genocide-in-their-lives/
The graves dug for 153 Iranian female school children who were killed by an Israeli-American strike.
Photo: IRNA
It's just insane the degree to which the federal government has simply declared war on a U.S. state. A punitive war with no discernible objective other than to immiserate its people. bsky.app/profile/apne...
Please read @davekarpf.bsky.social on why he's leaving Substack – and follow his great newsletter wherever he'll go.
I wrote about why I left Substack a few months ago: I simply couldn’t justify lending legitimacy to that platform anymore. A difficult transition – but, I believe, a necessary one.
Here are two charts about death.
Left, how mortality rates vary by age and population life expectancy.
Right, how age-specific mortality rates fall by population life expectancy, measured relative to a population with a life expectancy of 35 years.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/02/11/t...
In this new paper from James McMahon, he looks at the business of Hollywood strikes. Fascinating stuff as always.
capitalaspower.com/2026/02/mcma...
pretty stunning chart
Many people look at the stunning rise in life expectancy over the last century (left) and assume that the trend will continue forever. I doubt it will.
Trouble is, life expectancy at age 100 has hardly budged (right). Human lifespan has upper limits.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/02/11/t...
They rammed this man's truck, surrounded him, and when he slowed down and pulled over, they fired their guns at him.
Abolish is the floor.
The cure for ignorance is not information. It's humility and curiosity.
Facts can be easily dismissed. What motivates people to gain insight is recognizing gaps in their understanding and wanting to find out more.
The root of lifelong learning is knowing how little we know.
This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.
this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me
As billionaires try to life forever, it's worth understanding why they will almost certainly fail, and why our limited human lifespan is almost surely a good thing. Here's a deep dive into the science of life expectancy.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/02/11/t...
"Rising GDP continues to mean more carbon emissions and wider damage to the planet. Can the two be decoupled?"
The answer is no.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“The more provinces that join Alberta, the greater the likelihood that it will lead to the dismantling of the Canada Health Act...This could end could end Canadian medicare as we know it.” #cdnpoli @alonghurst.bsky.social @poliscirish.bsky.social @policyalternatives.ca
thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026...
Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.
New from me: It is not just that the US is experiencing democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism has emerged more quickly than in other benchmark countries.
This graph from John Burn-Murdoch sums it up. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/autocracy-...
Melania’s first screening in Times Square draws four people, at least three of them professional critics. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
"They told us what they were going to do. They published it. They put it on a website. And when it happened, the press was surprised."
Hoo boy, everyone should bookmark this @parkermolloy.com piece & make sure everyone involved in media reads it.
This is a landmark. The NY Times uses the phrase 'state terror' ... to refer to the federal government.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/o...
Given the ongoing US piracy of Venezuelan oil, it seems like a good time to think about the future of US oil production.
That future doesn't look good.
economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/01/24/u...
Holy crap.
This is the most damning video yet.
It shows Border Patrol agents clearly taking Alex's firearm, running it away, and THEN executed him in cold blood by emptying a clip into his face.
Murder.
This is courage. Looking a masked, government fascist dead in the eye, face to face, knowing full well that your life is on the line.
If elected officials had 1/10th of Alex Pretti's resolve, we would have far fewer troubles.
