January 5, 2026

Now, on to the news…

Last week, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s 112th mayor. During the ceremony, he promised to “replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

Mamdani may have good intentions, Adam Lehodey writes, but they “don’t align with economic realities, or with a sound grasp of human incentives and motivations.” Indeed, we’ve seen where public officials' good intentions have led in the past, from rent-stabilization laws pushing apartments into disrepair to high taxes to absurd construction-liability laws.

“For those who believe that New York City should reward excellence and provide opportunities, not hand-outs,” Lehodey writes, “Mamdani’s inauguration was a bracing experience. But will his policies succeed—even by their own metrics?”

Read his take.

Zohran Mamdani has taken the oath of office as New York City’s new mayor. In his inaugural speech, he did not back down from the promises he had made during his campaign—especially the overarching one to “make it possible,” as he put it, “for every New Yorker to afford a life they love once again.” To accomplish this, Mamdani reiterated his now-familiar plans to freeze rents, create a universal childcare benefit, and institute free bus service.

With his ambitious affordability agenda, Mamdani may believe that he can ignore market forces, but “the market won’t ignore him,” as Nicole Gelinas writes. “In thinking that he can promise broad ‘affordability’ by decree, he doesn’t understand that free markets—or what passes for them in New York—would respond in ways that he would not like and could not control.” Read her assessment here.

Deichman Bjørvika, the main library in Oslo, is set in a postmodern building in the heart of Norway’s capital city. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Stephen Eide visited the library and was struck by the “near-total absence of homelessness.”

In cities across the United States, libraries often serve as de facto day centers for the homeless, given shelter rules that prohibit clients from lingering in dorm spaces in the daytime. But Norway’s Deichman Bjørvika has avoided that fate. Read why Eide thinks library use “offers a meaningful measure of urban health,” and why Europe demonstrates a lesson in “how to run cities.”

The Manhattan Institute is proud to serve as the Principal Institutional Partner for the Sun Valley Policy Forum’s 2026 Winter Summit in the iconic resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho on February 11, 2026.

We are thrilled to join Joe Lonsdale and MI senior fellow Christopher F. Rufo for an evening on principled leadership and the future of American institutions in an AI-driven era. Please click here to learn more about the Sun Valley Policy Forum and our partnership and to purchase tickets at a discounted rate for friends of the Manhattan Institute.

“We should be proud of overcoming the sin of slavery, but sinful it was, nevertheless, and a stain on our nation’s history and that of the entire world.”

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Lex Orandi II, commenting on slavery in America 

Photo credit: Anadolu / Contributor / Anadolu via Getty Images