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☆ SBF Faces Prison, but ‘Effective Altruism’ Lives On
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Andy Kessler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Jason Riley and Dan Henninger. I was looking forward to the March trial and seeing the politicians who accepted the convicted fraudster’s donations squirm like worms. Beyond trying to stave off crypto regulations, he was shoveling millions to the effective-altruism movement, which continues to infiltrate governments more than most people realize. With SBF facing a long term in the big house, has effective altruism landed on the ash heap of history? Did you know proponents of the movement basically wrote the Biden administration’s recent executive order on artificial intelligence?

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Jason Riley, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Sam Bankman Organizations: Getty, Justice Department, Biden

☆ California Invents a Crazy New Tort
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Jason Riley and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/wawog_now via Instagram Composite: Mark KellyBusinesses are often sued for selling allegedly faulty products that aren’t actually defective. Last week a California appeals court ruled that businesses can also be sued for failing to develop a product. Some 24,000 patients have sued Gilead Sciences in California state court for failing to introduce an allegedly safer version of an HIV drug. The plaintiffs don’t argue that the drug is defective or lacked adequate warnings.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Jason Riley, Dan Henninger, Kelly, Gilead Organizations: Getty, Gilead Sciences, Drug Administration Locations: California

☆ Is There a Constitutional Right to Vagrancy?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Bill McGurn and Dan Henninger. The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal challenging a judicial ruling that established a de facto constitutional right to vagrancy. ( City of Grants Pass v. A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 blocked the Oregon town of Grants Pass from enforcing “anti-camping” laws on public property. The judges said the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits cities from arresting or imposing penalties on homeless people for squatting on public property if there aren’t enough shelter beds for every vagrant.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Bill McGurn, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Johnson Organizations: Zuma, Mark Kelly Good, West, Ninth Circuit Locations: West Coast, Grants, Oregon

☆ Hunter Biden’s Missing ‘Services’
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Kimberley A. Strassel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska. Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Co. in 1994, working in the news department of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels, and then in London. She moved to New York in 1999 and soon thereafter joined the Journal's editorial page, working as a features editor, and then as an editorial writer. An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University.

Persons: Kimberley Strassel, Strassel Organizations: Wall Street, Potomac Watch, Dow Jones & Co, The, Street, Fox, Sunday, Press, Policy, International Affairs, Princeton University Locations: Kimberley, Alaska, Brussels, London, New York, An Oregon

☆ New York’s Near Zombie Apocalypse
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyImagine if nearly half of New York City lost heat for months during the winter. That’s not the plot of a new survival drama. Such a catastrophe nearly occurred last Christmas, according to an alarming recent report by energy regulators that deserves more attention. It was the fifth time in 11 years that power plant failures caused by cold weather jeopardized grid reliability.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Elliott Organizations: Zuma, New York, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, North American Electric Reliability Corporation Locations: New, New York City

☆ Many More Voters With Guns
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyMore than half of American voters say that they or someone in their household owns a gun, according to a poll by NBC News. After progressives drove up firearm ownership with policies that are soft on violent crime, they can’t figure out why their gun-control ideas fail to pass. The share of voters with a firearm in the household is 52%, up from 46% in 2019 and 42% in 2013. This is no surprise, in part because rural areas tilt right, and that’s where hunting is a family event and bears might be prowling the woods.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly More Organizations: Zuma, NBC News

☆ Car Dealers to Biden: EVs Aren’t Selling
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyYou can subsidize a buyer into the auto showroom, but you can’t make him buy. That’s the word from some 3,900 car dealers across the country who on Tuesday wrote President Biden that electric vehicles are piling up unsold on their lots. They want relief from his onerous and unrealistic EV sales mandate. “There are many excellent battery electric vehicles available for consumers to purchase,” the dealers write in their letter to the President.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Biden Organizations: Zuma

☆ Amtrak Tries to Take Union Station
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley and Dan Henninger. Amtrak is a rolling master class on government in action, and the latest example is its effort to seize control of Union Station in Washington via the power of eminent domain. The railway wants to do a concourse modernization project to add more seating, increase signage in the terminal, and improve infrastructure. In a September hearing before Washington, D.C., federal district Judge Amit Mehta , Amtrak CEO Steven Gardner said that the current leaseholder, a company called USI, isn’t helping the railway accomplish its plans. He complained that there’s “a mismatch” between Amtrak and “a private developer looking to maximize retail and revenue.”

Persons: Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley, Dan Henninger, Amit Mehta, Steven Gardner, isn’t, there’s Organizations: Amtrak, Station, D.C Locations: Washington

☆ Magic Pills Are Coming
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Andy Kessler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

At healthcare conferences, someone always asks, “What if there was a magic pill?” One that could cure major diseases. Inevitably, the discussion ends with, “But, of course, there is no magic pill.” So we spend, spend, spend on healthcare, from $1.4 trillion in 2000 in the U.S. to more than $4.3 trillion—18% of the economy—in 2021. These treat but don’t cure diseases. Plus, two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, which puts them at greater risk for many chronic diseases such as heart disease and stroke. According to the National Institutes of Health, “86% of health care costs are attributable to chronic disease.”

Persons: Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley, Dan Henninger, ” Organizations: National Institutes of Health Locations: U.S

☆ The Supreme Court Considers the Right to Trial by Jury
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley and Dan Henninger. The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear the first of two landmark cases this term challenging the runaway administrative state. At stake in SEC v. Jarkesy is a bedrock constitutional principle that colonists fought to defend in the American revolution: the right to a trial by jury. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act granted the Securities and Exchange Commission unbridled power to seek penalties administratively against any individual for violating securities laws. Democrats wanted to make it easier for the agency to punish misconduct.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Allysia Finley, Dan Henninger, Dodd, Frank Organizations: SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission

☆ Elizabeth Warren Has an ObamaCare Epiphany
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyIt took 13 years, but Elizabeth Warren is at long last acknowledging that ObamaCare has increased healthcare prices and industry consolidation. Government price controls and profit caps have resulted in unintended consequences. The Massachusetts Senator and Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana this week wrote a letter to the Health and Human Services Department inspector general complaining that the nation’s largest health insurers are dodging Obama Care’s medical loss ratio (MLR). The result, they say, is higher costs for patients.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Elizabeth Warren, ObamaCare, Republican Sen, Mike Braun, Obama Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Republican, Health, Human Services Department Locations: Massachusetts, Indiana

☆ Germany Faces the Green Fiscal Truth
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyThings have gone from bad to worse in Germany this week after a court ruling that’s forcing the government to do something truly shocking: level with voters about how much the net-zero energy transition will cost. Please pass the smelling salts. The country’s highest constitutional court ruled this month that one of the coalition government’s main gimmicks for funding green projects violates Germany’s version of a balanced-budged amendment. That amendment, known as the debt brake, caps the government’s fiscal deficit at 0.35% of gross domestic product per year except in emergencies (as defined by special legislation passed with a majority in the Bundestag).

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Kelly Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Bundestag Locations: Germany

☆ The Biden Energy Slush Fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Kimberley A. Strassel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

☆ The Wilders Message From the Netherlands
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyDutch elections rarely stir much excitement abroad, but the voting in the Netherlands Wednesday marks an exception. The big winner was Geert Wilders , a veteran right-wing campaigner, and the freakout his victory has triggered across Europe is something to behold. His next nearest competitor, a Labor-Green coalition led by Frans Timmermans , won 25 seats. Politicians will now negotiate to form a governing coalition, a process that often takes months in the Netherlands’ highly fragmented electoral system, and Mr. Wilders may not emerge as prime minister.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly Dutch, Geert Wilders, Frans Timmermans, Wilders Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Freedom Party, Labor, Green Locations: Netherlands, Europe

☆ The IRS’s Act of $600 Mercy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyWhile rarely a bearer of good news, the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday postponed a $600 reporting threshold for payments received via online platforms such as Venmo, eBay and Airbnb . The IRS is doing a favor for itself and President Biden as much as it is for Americans. Readers may recall that the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021 lowered the threshold for third parties reporting transactions on Form 1099-K to $600 annually from $20,000. Democrats’ goal was to nab Americans who allegedly dodge taxes by failing to report income earned from, say, driving for Uber or renting out second homes on Airbnb.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Biden, ’ Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Internal Revenue Service, eBay, IRS, American, nab Locations: Airbnb

☆ OpenAI’s Ineffective Altruists vs. Sam Altman
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyCorporate power struggles aren’t rare, and most companies survive them. But the OpenAI board’s sudden ouster of CEO Sam Altman last week looks increasingly like a misguided kamikaze run. Mr. Altman helped launch OpenAI in 2015 with the mission of responsibly developing artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. He has since become the technology’s public face, with media appearances and testimony to Congress.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Kelly, Sam Altman, Altman Organizations: Getty, Zuma Locations: Silicon

☆ Argentina Gambles on Milei
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyWhen there’s no real alternative, there’s no problem, as the saying goes. And that may be the logic of Argentina voters on Sunday who rejected the catastrophe of Peronist rule in favor of impulsive and charismatic outsider Javier Milei , who promised what for Argentina is the radical change of free-market economics. Mr. Milei, a Congressman and self-described libertarian, won the Presidency in a rout with 56% of the vote to 44%. He defeated Sergio Massa , the incumbent economic minister and architect of the policies that have produced runaway inflation, declining living standards, a government shedding foreign reserves, and the worst economic crisis in decades.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly, Javier Milei, Milei, Sergio Massa Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Sunday Locations: Argentina

☆ Major Mea Culpa From MLB
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyWill Rob Manfred apologize to the state of Georgia and its citizens? The commissioner of Major League Baseball announced Thursday that the annual All-Star Game will be held in Atlanta in 2025, two years after he moved the game from the city because of a controversial election law. Not the bulk of the law, the Election Integrity Act of 2021, which tightened up vote-by-mail and voter ID rules. Brian Kemp in 2018 but had refused in Donald Trump fashion to accept the result, also played the race card.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly Will Rob Manfred, What’s, Manfred, Biden, Jim Crow, ” Stacey Abrams, Brian Kemp, Donald Trump Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Major League Baseball, Democratic Party, Gov Locations: Georgia, Atlanta

☆ Autonomous Cars Beat EVs
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Andy Kessler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Bill McGurn, Kate Bachelder Odell, Mene Ukueberuwa, and Kim Strassel. And given high prices for EVs, subsidies are mainly a giveaway to the already well-off. If you add up carbon emissions from manufacturing, daily use and end of life, EVs have total life-cycle emissions 30% lower than gasoline-powered autos. In Silicon Valley, something is considered truly transformational if it’s 10 times better, not a third. Instead of throwing taxpayer money at EVs, President Biden could have been a hero and helped bring autonomous vehicles to the market faster.

Persons: Bill McGurn, Kate Bachelder Odell, Mene Ukueberuwa, Kim Strassel, Mark Kelly, Ford, Biden Organizations: Getty, Honda, General Motors Locations: Silicon, EVs

☆ The Covid Vaccine Windfall Turns for Pfizer and Moderna
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Allysia Finley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/AFP/Getty Images/Reuters/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyThe U.S. was in a fit of Covid panic during Thanksgiving week two years ago. Share prices in Pfizer and Moderna surged. By month’s end, Pfizer’s stock-market value had surpassed $300 billion, up 50% from the start of the pandemic. In 2022 Pfizer became the first pharmaceutical company to book more than $100 billion in annual sales owing to government purchases of its vaccines and antiviral pill.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson, Mary O'Grady, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly The Organizations: Getty, Zuma, Pfizer, Moderna Locations: Mark Kelly The U.S

☆ The GOP’s Energizer Bunnies
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Kimberley A. Strassel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

☆ U.S. CEOs on the Chinese Menu
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Bill McGurn, Kate Bachelder Odell, Mene Ukueberuwa, and Kim Strassel. Images: AFP/Getty Images/Reuters Composite: Mark KellyWhatever the merits of this week’s summit between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping , there was no reason for U.S. business leaders to trip over themselves to get in on the action. Yet there they were Wednesday evening, kowtowing to Mr. Xi at a dinner that delivered China a propaganda coup and the CEOs an embarrassment. The dinner, for which ticket prices ranged up to $40,000, sounds like some affair. Mr. Xi received a standing ovation for taking the stage before he said a word.

Persons: Bill McGurn, Kate Bachelder Odell, Mene Ukueberuwa, Kim Strassel, Mark Kelly, Biden, Xi Jinping, kowtowing, Xi, Tim Cook Organizations: Getty, Qualcomm, Boeing, U.S Locations: China

☆ Trump University, Now With Tax Money
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Bill McGurn, Kate Bachelder Odell, Mene Ukueberuwa, and Kim Strassel. Images: AFP/Getty Images/Reuters Composite: Mark KellyAs if the federal bureaucracy didn’t have enough to do, Donald Trump says that in a second term he’d create a new tuition-free online university to “compete directly” for college students. It would award bachelor’s degree equivalents “that the U.S. government and all federal contractors will henceforth recognize.” Step right up to enroll in Trump University 2.0. Mr. Trump unveiled the idea recently in a video on Truth Social, and the plan includes all of the careful policy thinking typical of a video on Truth Social. “Whether you want lectures on ancient histories, or an introduction to financial accounting, or training in a skilled trade,” Mr. Trump said, “the goal will be to deliver it and get it done properly, using study groups, mentors, industry partnerships, and the latest breakthrough in computing.”

Persons: Bill McGurn, Kate Bachelder Odell, Mene Ukueberuwa, Kim Strassel, Mark Kelly, Donald Trump, Trump, Mr Organizations: Getty, Trump University

☆ Nikki Haley’s 5-Inch Heels
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Kimberley A. Strassel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried and the SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-05 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week’s best and worst from Kim Strassel, Bill McGurn and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/Reuters Composite: Mark KellySam Bankman-Fried charmed investors and politicians, but he wasn’t so fortunate with a federal jury. On Thursday the former FTX crypto-exchange kingpin was convicted of seven counts of fraud and money-laundering. Note to Chairman Gary Gensler : The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t need to regulate crypto markets to police malfeasance. Prosecutors showed that Mr. Bankman-Fried used the money to fund risky investment bets and cover losses at his Alameda Research trading house, buy influence in Washington, and acquire real estate in the Bahamas.

Persons: Kim Strassel, Bill McGurn, Dan Henninger, Mark Kelly Sam Bankman, Fried, Gary Gensler, FTX Organizations: Reuters, Securities, Exchange, Prosecutors, Alameda Research Locations: Washington, Bahamas

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