Latest Economic and Trade Policy Posts

The unchecked expansion of multinational technology conglomerates across artificial intelligence, digital privacy, and cryptocurrency represents a critical threat to public sovereignty, labor rights, and ecological stability. These interconnected domains function as a new frontier of extractive capitalism, demanding urgent international democratic governance to rein in tech monopolies that treat personal data as raw material and planetary resources as expendable. This systemic crisis stems from a deliberate business model designed to outpace legislative oversight, concentrating unprecedented wealth and structural power into the hands of a few unaccountable corporate executives and speculative investors.

Industrial agriculture remains a primary driver of ecological degradation and greenhouse gas emissions, pushing communities toward the brink of climate collapse. In response, regenerative agriculture has emerged as a proposed pathway for climate adaptation. Historically rooted in Indigenous land stewardship, genuine regenerative practices prioritize holistic soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem restoration over maximum yield. These methods aim to adapt to changing climate realities by building resilient landscapes capable of withstanding extreme weather events while sequestering carbon.

In July of 2025, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBBA) into law, setting into motion one of the most sweeping transformations to the American welfare state in modern history. At the center of this legislative overhaul is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As the nation’s preeminent anti-poverty initiative since 1964, SNAP provides an estimated 42 million Americans with vital funds for food.

While the full federal government reopened in early 2026, the United States remains in a state of economic volatility due to a lingering partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now entering its 67th day.

Death in the United States has evolved from a community-centered rite into a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar commercial sector often dubbed the funeral industrial complex. With approximately three million Americans dying annually, a figure projected to rise as the baby boomer generation ages, the logistics of disposition have become a pressing socioeconomic challenge. For decades, the default American way of death involved embalming, heavy metal caskets, and concrete vaults, a practice that is historically an anomaly and environmentally taxing. However, economic pressures and shifting cultural attitudes have catalyzed a massive transition toward cremation. In 2024, the cremation rate surpassed 61 percent, with projections suggesting it will exceed 80 percent by 2045.

Commodity metals  are raw metals that are globally standardized and traded in bulk. They are typically categorized as industrial (base) metals (copper, aluminum, zinc), or precious metals (gold, silver, platinum). Precious metals are valued for investment and jewelry, while base metals are essential for industrial use and manufacturing.  This Brief seeks to explain the ways in which fluctuations in demand influence the pricing and availability of commodity metals.  In addition to commodity metals, rare earth minerals play an important role in various technologies but are not globally standardized. We will discuss these in an upcoming brief.

Elon Musk’s corporate empire—Tesla, SpaceX/Starlink, X, Neuralink and the Boring Company—has become a single, privately steered ecosystem whose combined annual revenues now rival the GDP of a midsize nation.