Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that was believed lost for the past 100 years has been sold at auction in Vienna. The unfinished work, Portrait of Fraulein Lieser, fetched €30m (£26m; $32m). It was commissioned by a family of Jewish industrialists in 1917, a year before Klimt’s death. However, there are many unanswered questions about the painting and debates about who the woman in the portrait is, as well as what happened to the painting during the Nazi era. It is believed to depict one of the daughters of either Adolf or Justus Lieser, who were brothers from a wealthy family of Jewish industrialists.” (04/24/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68886196
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Frank Shostak
“A key factor that constrains people’s ability to generate goods and services is the scarcity of funding. Contrary to popular thinking, funding is not about money as such but about real savings.” (04/24/24)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2024/04/government-outlays-and-economic-growth/
Source: The Hill
“The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3-2 on Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements that prevent tens of millions of employees from working for competitors or starting a competing business after they leave a job. From fast food workers to CEOs, the FTC estimates 18 percent of the U.S. workforce is covered by noncompete agreements — about 30 million people. The final rule would ban new noncompete agreements for all workers and require companies to let current and past employees know they won’t enforce them. Companies will also have to throw out existing noncompete agreements for most employees, although in a change from the original proposal, the agreements may remain in effect for senior executives.” (04/24/24)
https://thehill.com/business/4615452-ftc-votes-to-ban-non-compete-agreements/
Source: Antiwar.com
“Senate Passes $95 Billion for Foreign Wars, Red Cross: Rafah Evacuation Not ‘Possible,’ and More.” (04/24/24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1xzQpRyXMA
Source: Niskanen Center
by Matt Darling
“The United States funds unemployment insurance (UI) in an unusual way. Most nations fund unemployment insurance through a flat payroll tax — similar to how the United States funds programs like Social Security and Medicare: Every person who works has some fixed percentage taken out of each paycheck1 (up to a certain amount) to fund the unemployment insurance program. The United States uses a different system called experience rating. Under experience rating, unemployment insurance is paid for by a tax on firms, and the level of that tax depends on each firm’s history (or ‘experience’) sending laid-off workers into the unemployment insurance system.” (04/23/24)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/creating-a-more-dynamic-unemployment-insurance-system-the-case-for-eliminating-experience-rating/
Source: The Federalist
by David Harsanyi
“‘I condemn the antisemitic protests’ Joe Biden told reporters after days of anti-Jewish demonstrations at Columbia University and other Ivy League schools. ‘I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.’ Any morally clearheaded American already has a very good idea of what’s going on. Biden is both-siding the actions of Kafiya-wearing terror cheerleaders on Columbia’s Gaza Quad (who target American Jews who have absolutely no bearing on Israel’s actions) with those who refuse to accept the blood libel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza. It is the kind of odious moral relativism one expects to hear from a ‘squad’ member or clout-chasing far-right ‘influencer,’ not the president.” [editor’s note: There was a time, long ago, when Harsanyi seemed to lean kinda sorta a little bit libertarianish. Apparently the lobotomy was a complete success – TLK] (04/23/24)
https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/23/joe-biden-says-there-are-very-fine-people-on-both-sides-of-the-oct-7-debate/
Source: Fox News
“Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed a bill aimed at strengthening the rights of homeowners looking to evict squatters from their property, despite the bill being passed in bipartisan fashion and as a wave of squatting cases continue to terrify homeowners across the country. The bill, SB 1129, would have permitted a homeowner to request law enforcement to immediately remove a squatter from their property, had the squatter invaded a home and unlawfully claimed a right to live there. Police, acting on an owner’s affidavit, would have had the permission to immediately go in and have someone evicted. But Hobbs nixed the bill on Tuesday in a short letter to the president of the State Senate.” (04/24/24)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/arizona-gov-katie-hobbs-vetoes-bipartisan-bill-combat-squatting-election-bills
Source: The UnPopulist
by Matt Johnson
“The former biology professor weaves grand narratives of shadowy elites plotting a totalitarian takeover by ‘just asking questions.’” (04/23/24)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/bret-weinstein-conspiracy-theorist
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russia has arrested Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov on organised corruption charges in the most high-profile case since the start of the country’s all-out war on Ukraine. A brief statement by Russia’s Investigative Committee citing a statute for accepting bribes ‘on a particularly large scale’ said on Wednesday that the arrest was made a day earlier. State media showed brief footage of the military official standing in a Moscow court. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted.” (04/24/24)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/24/russia-arrests-deputy-defence-minister-suspected-of-corruption
Source: Serious Trouble
“If You Voir Something, Dire Something.” (04/23/24)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/if-you-voir-something-dire-something
