March 17, 2025

Now, on to the news…

One of the central arguments used to defend “gender-affirming” medical procedures is that trans-identifying people’s brains resemble those of the opposite sex. Proponents claim that men who identify as women, for example, have “female brains” trapped in “male bodies.”

This “brain sex” hypothesis is based on flawed neuroanatomical research, argue Colin Wright, Samuel Stagg, and Christina Buttons, in a wide-ranging analysis. Such studies, they claim, often fail to control for participants’ sexual orientation. When that variable is accounted for, “the reported neuroanatomical shifts in transgender brain-scan studies diminish greatly or vanish entirely.”

Activist physicians nevertheless cite these studies to justify performing barbaric procedures on children. “Policymakers should mandate rigorous, independent reviews of the scientific claims surrounding transgender identity’s supposedly biological basis,” the authors write. “Otherwise, vulnerable young people will continue to face irrevocable and potentially devastating treatments.” Read the rest of their piece here.

Medicaid spending has exploded, but much of that money isn’t going to the poor—it’s funding state-driven expansions that crowd out private insurance and inflate costs. Chris Pope explains how states game the system and why Congress should stop them from making Medicaid even more expensive.

Kemi Badenoch, the recently elected leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, has been facing backlash over her political views, with some critics suggesting that her victory represents a victory for racism.

Badenoch is black, but apparently not black enough. “According to this perspective, individuals of a certain race are obligated—under penalty of being labeled traitors—to think in specific ways,” writes Theodore Dalrymple. “If they deviate, they must be insincere, motivated by personal gain, and serving as tools of their race’s supposed enemies.”

From dishwashers to air conditioners, the Biden administration pushed aggressive appliance regulations that raised costs and reduced performance—all in the name of fighting climate change. But President Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are reversing course, postponing several major mandates and signaling a broader rollback. As Ben Lieberman argues, Congress can end federal meddling in home appliances for good: “The people, not the government, should be choosing the home appliances and products they want at prices they can afford.” Read more here.

Cost-Benefit Economics

Jason Furman joins Allison Schrager and Jordan McGillis to discuss trade-offs in economic policy decision-making.

Your idea is really stupid. It continues New York State’s violation of the Fifth Amendment for no good reason. 

The easiest and fastest way to get rid of rent control is for President Trump to issue an executive order abolishing the rent stabilization law and for the U.S. Department of Justice to sue the Division of Housing and Community Renewal to cease functioning immediately. Tenants can either stay in their apartments by negotiating a new lease, or they can move. 

There is no connection whatsoever between rent control and the production of housing. More housing is needed but not produced because there is no economic demand for it.  Tenant incomes are simply not high enough to pay the cost of producing and operating rental housing or to pay the mortgage required to buy an apartment. Low-income people need subsidies to participate in the housing market. 

The most efficient and least costly way to subsidize them is to amend the federal tax code to include a negative income tax funded by line-item tax revenues in the annual federal budget. This idea and a flat tax rate on all income was proposed by President Richard Nixon’s Family Assistance Plan in 1969. 

Thornton S., who owns a rent-controlled building in Brooklyn, New York, in response to the article, “How New York Can Get Out of Its Rent Control Mess”

Photo credits: Klaus Vedfelt / DigitalVision via Getty Images