Hmm, Well, Yes, Expanding Government-Funded Addiction Treatment Does Count As GDP Growth

In this week’s roundup: the problem with economic piety, a podcast with FTC chair Lina Khan, and even a bonus trade-and-tariff reading list. 

But first, a brief announcement.

As you may have seen, American Compass announced on Wednesday the forthcoming launch of Commonplace, a magazine that will focus on what matters in America: the economic, political, and cultural concerns shaping the trajectory of the American experiment and the experiences of average Americans.

Why are doing this? For the same reason we launched American Compass: To do the work of revitalizing conservatism, which legacy institutions have proved themselves incapable of. The conservative media ecosystem faces many of the same challenges that its policy world faced five years ago, still dominated by a set of institutions dedicated to replaying the greatest hits of the 1980s long after the nation had, with good reason, moved on. Legacy publications like the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page and National Review continue to pine for a return of the Bush-Cheney years while new entrants like The Dispatch, The Bulwark, and Fusion distinguish themselves by pining extra hard for a return of the Bush-Cheney years. No home exists for the writers who are debating and developing the future shape of conservatism, and for the readers who want to participate in that process.

Commonplace will be the flagship publication of the coalition now anchoring the right-of-center in American politics. I’m not going to do that thing where I automatically add you all to its mailing list against your will, but I am going to encourage you to go follow @commonplc and subscribe for free to receive launch updates and must-reads. If you enjoy Understanding America, you’ll want to follow and read Commonplace.

Announcement over.

Your one thing to read this week is a New York Times long-read: Opioids Ravaged a Kentucky Town. Then Rehab Became Its Business.