Bob Burgess

Birthright Citizenship’s Origin Is Complicated. Its Meaning Isn’t. The lawmakers who wrote drafted the 14th Amendment in 1866 were looking to protect former slaves as well as the children of unpopular immigrants.

The definitive take on birthright citizenship via @opinion.bloomberg.com :

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The US Quietly Made a New National Security Plan Out of Whims It was long overdue and published discreetly, unaccompanied by the usual presidential speechifying so far. And yet America’s new National Security Strategy — the document that in theory will guide for...

ANDREASK KLUTH:

The new National Security Strategy "portrays a government that will keep contorting itself to add semantic coherence to the whims of a president who does whatever he wants."

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The Man Who Got Eric Trump Into American Bitcoin Before 70% Rout Eric Trump rang the Nasdaq bell in September to celebrate a more than $500 million windfall from American Bitcoin Corp.’s trading debut. Three months later, the shares have cratered 70%.

"His rise from a precocious Vancouver car dealer to the head of a Nasdaq-listed company underscores how access to Trumpworld became a fast route to riches during the 2025 crypto boom — and how quickly the music is stopping..."

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The hepatitis B vaccine had been recommended for all newborns since 1991.

From 1990-2019, acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens fell 99 percent. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...

New from me at the @CatoInstitute blog: "For US Businesses, Tariff Complexity Is 'Death by a Thousand Papercuts'" www.cato.org/blog/us-busi...

There's some economics in here, but a whole lotta politics, too. I am very worried that we are going to get some very bad policies in response.

And yet, no deal on healthcare, making the cost of living more affordable or bringing down housing costs.

This is going to be a cliffhanger like the China super embassy in London. Which way will it go?

If Cars Are Too Expensive, Just Pump More Gas. What? The Trump administration has hit upon an unorthodox solution to the cost-of-living crisis: Pumping more gasoline. Executives from Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV attended a White ...

Trump’s new fuel economy standards offer relief for Detroit, not consumers
@opinion.bloomberg.com

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Are we in a stock market bubble?

There’s a raging debate in markets about the sustainability of today’s high stock valuations, and it starts with this chart👇

Shiller P/E has a strong track record of flagging bubbles, and it's flashing red.

(link below)

An Old-Fashioned Cure for Fading Trust in Government Across much of the industrial world, trust in government is low and declining. Why is this happening and why, exactly, does it matter? An unusually thorough new study looks at these questions and find...

"The bad news for countries like the US, which have seen trust in government fall so precipitously, is that sound economic management is now a lot more difficult than before."

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

DOGE Was a Chaos Factory With a Savings Byproduct In February, when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was at the seeming height of its chain-saw-wielding power, participants on the betting market Kalshi briefly put the odds that Musk an...

"Should Musk and DOGE get any credit for this? I hesitate to grant it given the shoddiness of much of their work and the dishonesty of Musk’s representations of it."

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Apple’s Talent Exodus Complicates Cook’s Eventual Exit As many of us know, it’s really hard to ditch Apple. Unless you’re one of its executives.

"..the flurry of talent leaving the company should cause investors some alarm. Throughout this year, as it missed its own targets on rolling out AI features to its devices, Apple was largely given a free pass..."
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

University of Alabama shuts down student magazines for Black students, women students University officials told editors of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six that they believed they were out of compliance with Trump administration guidance on anti-DEI policies.

????

"University officials told editors of Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six that they believed they were out of compliance with Trump administration guidance on anti-DEI policies."

www.whatimreading.net/p/university...

Detroit's vehicles are expensive because that is how their business model works now. See: Ford.
@opinion.bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Are We in a Stock Bubble? This Is the Only Thread You Need High valuations are supporting equity markets and the economy. Everyone has a view on whether it’s sustainable.

Is the stock market one gigantic bubble waiting to burst?

@opinion.bloomberg.com's Jonathan Levin debates Jonathan Levin (yes, you read that correctly) and come sup with some surprising answers.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

How a Man Convicted of Running a Latin American Narco State Landed a Pardon Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s unusual network of Trump allies and MAGA influencers helped deliver an extraordinary pardon to him.

"Trump has privately told advisers in recent days that he decided to grant the pardon after his allies in Florida, including longtime confidant Roger Stone and members of his Mar-a-Lago club, pushed for it, according to a person who spoke to him."
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Apple Design Executive Alan Dye Poached by Meta in Major Coup Meta Platforms Inc. has poached Apple Inc.’s most prominent design executive in a major coup that underscores a push by the social networking giant into AI-equipped consumer devices.

The brain drain at Apple continues unabated...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bond investors warned US Treasury over picking Kevin Hassett as Fed chair Some market participants worried candidate for top central bank job will be swayed by Trump on interest rates

"When Hassett, a career economist whose work has focused on tax policy, met with TBAC earlier this year, he spent little time talking about markets, instead pitching White House priorities, including a discussion about Mexican drug cartels, these people said."

www.ft.com/content/ad4b...

Pentagon Watchdog Gives ‘Signalgate’ Report on Hegseth to Senate The Pentagon’s acting inspector general turned over the results of its long-awaited probe into whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated secrecy rules by sharing attack plans on the Signal messa...

"..the Wall Street Journal cited Senator Mark Kelly as saying the report concluded Hegseth had violated some department (rules). Separately, CNN said Hegseth refused to sit for an interview with the inspector general, instead choosing to respond in writing."
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

ADP shows private hiring has essentially ground to a halt overall in recent months led by job losses among small firms

You're energy bills aren't going down anytime soon:

*US NATURAL GAS FUTURES REACH $5 FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2022

#inflation

College Cancel Culture Is Getting Worse It has been another brutal year for academic freedom. Colleges and universities have become entangled in political agendas; donors and trustees have used funding as a cudgel; and the Trump administrat...

"'Discomfort is part of a liberal arts education.' ... 'You need to hear all the arguments, if for no other reason than to understand the people who make those arguments — but also how to argue against them.' America’s universities need to remember that."

 www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

TRANSLATION: Prepare for even more inflation

*BESSENT: COULD GET A ONE-TIME PRICE ADJUSTMENT FROM TARIFFS

A $2,000 Tariff Dividend for Everyone? Bad Idea Unsustainable government borrowing has already put the economy on course for fiscal breakdown — but don’t discount Washington’s ability to make things worse.

BLOOMBERG EDITORIAL BOARD:

"Shoppers don’t need reminding that prices are still rising too fast, and they hear US producers complaining constantly about the effects on their own costs."

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

We Can Stop Fraud in Minnesota Without Attacking Somalis Minnesota’s Somali community is the latest immigrant group targeted by President Donald Trump. Trump announced Friday that deportation protections granted under the Temporary Protected Status program ...

"Trump’s claim about Minnesota’s Somali community conflates two issues that should be kept separate: criminal accusations and immigration policy."

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

With Poverty, Where Should America Draw the Line? At least from a material perspective, things have never been better for many if not most Americans: Their homes are larger and have more amenities. More of them than ever before have access to basic m...

"..this argument misunderstands what poverty means and how it is measured. But it resonated for a reason: The ability to fully take part in the economy has never felt so out of reach, not just for people living in poverty but also for the middle class."

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Freed by Trump, a $200 Million Fraudster Started a New Scam Eli Weinstein promised to reform — but after his release he took on an alias and started another Ponzi scheme.

"Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of a fraudster. Within months, he was back in business."

www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Down 90% or More, Trump-Family Assets Are Outpacing Crypto Crash The crash Tuesday in the crypto miner American Bitcoin Corp. was instantaneous. At 9:31 a.m. on Wall Street, just one minute after trading started, its shares were down 33%. Five minutes later, losses...

"It was all so spectacular that American Bitcoin quickly became the symbol of not just the crypto market wipeout of late 2025 but also the collapse of the myriad ventures that the Trump family has been promoting in the digital-currency world over the past year."

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...