February 12, 2026

Now, on to the news…

Home prices have been rising since 2019, with the median price of existing single-family homes hitting $412,500 in 2024. That’s five times the median household income. Meanwhile, nearly 30 percent of those who rent are “severely cost-burdened,” meaning that they spend more than half their income on housing.

“The surge in home prices relative to incomes shows that demand for ownership housing continues to exceed supply,” Eric Kober writes. “The federal government inflates demand by taxing homeowners less than renters and by providing mortgage subsidies, while local governments constrain supply with restrictive zoning and other regulations.”

Read about how the federal government is subsidizing homeownership, the local government policies that have restricted supply, and what can be done to narrow the gap between the supply of available homes and demand for them.

President Trump has proposed to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, reportedly for one year. Given that Americans are carrying record credit card debt, this idea sounds appealing. But it’s not wise, Santiago Vidal Calvo argues. “If the government forces the price of credit below its market-clearing rate, the result will not be the same amount of credit at a lower price. It will be less credit for the least creditworthy,” he writes. “These borrowers will substitute to other, riskier products, while everyone else will have to pay more.”

Read his analysis.

It seems that every Olympic season, the International Olympic Committee tries to brand the games as a form of international diplomacy, a festival of global harmony. After all, athletes compete in adjacent lanes, coexisting with each other despite representing countries from around the world.

The reality, of course, is more complex. “Wars have started during Olympic seasons, continued during Olympic seasons, and been cynically exploited through Olympic seasons,” Ilya Shapiro writes. “The Games don’t tame human conflict. If anything, they provide an irresistible stage on which to dramatize it.”

Read his take on why the IOC shouldn’t try to spin the Games as a peace project and should instead focus on what makes them truly great: athletic excellence and competition.

“There will come a time when the tide of migration will reverse, because Britain is as badly governed as many other places people are fleeing. Thus, it will be pointless for anyone—even those in the most impoverished former British colonies—to move there.”

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makestuff, commenting on the moral collapse of the Labour government

Photo credits: Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo