Out of Order

We rate the Democratic National Convention, discuss which parts of it matter, and why.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz recently gave a high-profile interview on CNN (which, we checked after the fact, garnered 6.3 million viewers the night it aired). We took the opportunity to discuss it.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded over $100 million to cities and towns that have dismantled zoning obstacles to building more housing.

The Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping bill led through Congress by Democrats in 2022, included a provision to allow the government to negotiate prices for Medicare drugs. This week, news came out that the program will save $6 billion between the government and individual co-pays in its first year, 2026. That's the case with ten drugs in 2026, but the list will expand from there.

Last week, Ukrainian armed forces invaded the Kursk region of Russia, taking hundreds of square kilometers of land. We discuss why they made this move and how it changes the outlook of the war.

The recent jobs report for July showed unemployment rising to 4.3% while 115,000 jobs were added, far below economists' estimates of 175,000. Does this mean we're heading for a recession?

A couple pieces of news came out suggesting it might become even harder for China to acquire semiconductor technology from the U.S. We break it down.

We break down judge Aileen Cannon's decision to throw out the Trump documents case, where he kept classified documents at his home in Florida after his presidency. We analyze her argument, including the legal precedent for it, and whether this will be the end of the case.

Arizona tried a program to give vouchers for private schools to anyone who wanted them. It didn't go how they expected.

The new ruling Labour party in the U.K. is implementing rules requiring cities to zone for much more, denser housing. We're pumped.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for ethical violations that include taking expensive gifts from political actors. We discuss how it matters.

The U.K.'s election resulted in a sweeping win for the Labour Party, taking down the Tory majority after they spent 14 years in power. We discuss how it happened, what's in store for the country next, and more.

French citizens went to the ballot box for two rounds of voting in late June and early July, leading to a victory for the leftist coalition and a quite stunning defeat for the far-right National Rally. We discuss how it happened, what comes next, and what this might mean for French policy.

Joe Biden suffered a quite disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump at the end of June. Since then, calls for him to drop out of the race have come strong and fast from media figures, millionaire donors, and elites in the Democratic party. In this video, we ask and answer lots of questions: How bad was Biden's debate performance really? Should he withdraw from the race? If so, who sh...

Project 2025, an authoritarian playbook published by the Heritage Foundation for the use of any Republican president who may take office, includes plans to eliminate the Head Start Program. Head Start is publicly funded child care - it fills in gaps left by the private sector in rural areas. The program has served over 40 million people to date, including 833,000 in 2023.

Amazon management has rejected the validity of its new union for nearly two years, instead fighting long legal battles against needing to recognize them. It's gotten to the point where the union can barely fund itself. Fortunately, the teamsters have decided to step in and help.

The Biden administration has announced new measures to protect illegal immigrants who are married to American citizens and have been in the country for at least ten years from deportation. In addition, the measures will establish a path to citizenship for those immigrants. Needless to say, we're fans of the policy.

Russia's state-owned natural gas company lost money for the first time ever in 2023 because the European market stopped buying, and they are not optimistic about their prospects for a rebound.

The U.S. is putting sanctions not only on Russian financial institutions, but secondary sanctions on any other companies that do business with Russian institutions. We discuss the fallout.

The EU finished an investigation into the Chinese EV industry and determined they would need to place tariffs of up to 37% on certain companies to maintain competitiveness. We discuss the fallout.

After gains by the far-right in the European Parliament elections, French President Emmanuel Macron called for elections at the end of June. The far-right national rally is polling strongly.

News outlets made a big deal last week about the gains made by far-right parties in the European Parliament elections. We think this swing to the right is more important for certain countries, namely France and Germany, than it is for the governance of the EU as a whole.

The overall consumer price index didn't change at all in the month of may, a very encouraging sign in the Fed's fight against inflation. We break down the May CPI report and the Fed's meeting later in the day

President Joe Biden presented a plan to produce a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, but right from the get-go it seems shaky.

India just held the biggest election in history. Exit polls showed a huge win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP party, but they ended up losing out on an outright majority in the parliament. That result is probably good for India's democracy, but might hurt its economy.