the trillionaire defense force has already assembled

Hasan Piker: “Elon Musk is a fucking failure and yet in spite of his failures, because he happened to be at the right place at the right time, he has failed upwards with his endless wealth. He’s a horrible person, an unbelievably insecure person, and yet he’s the richest person on the planet. We know he doesn’t fucking work hard because he Tweets all the goddamn time”

When the British colonial government in India tried to solve a cobra problem they offered a bounty for every dead snake. What happened next became one of the most famous lessons in economics - and explains why so many policies fail because they don't take account of incentives. In an attempt to reduce the number of venomous cobras in Delhi, the authorities introduced a reward for every cobra killed and handed in. At first, the policy appeared to work: dead cobras were brought in and payments were made. However, local entrepreneurs quickly realised there was easy money to be made. They began breeding cobras specifically to kill them and claim the bounty. When the government discovered the scheme and cancelled the programme, the breeders were left with thousands of now-worthless snakes. Rather than keep feeding them, they simply released the cobras back into the wild. The cobra population, which had been temporarily reduced, ended up larger than it was before the bounty was introduced. This episode became known as the “Cobra Effect” - a textbook example of perverse incentives. By creating a financial reward for dead cobras, the government unintentionally created a market for live ones. The policy did not account for how people would respond to the incentive it created. The same pattern appears whenever governments try to engineer outcomes through crude rewards or punishments without understanding how individuals will adapt. Good intentions are not enough. When policy ignores human ingenuity and self-interest, it often produces the exact opposite of what was intended.

Elon Musk just became the world's first trillionaire. The typical American household would have to work more than 11 MILLION years to make Elon Musk's level of wealth. We need a wealth tax.

"We say very clearly no to racism in our society." First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill condemns the violent disorder that has taken place in Belfast in recent days, describing it as "pure racism in its vilest form". Belfast live updates: trib.al/kI70nUY

NEW: Juan Hernandez, a welder who says he took “just another contract job” at SpaceX for $28/hr in 2015, is now a millionaire as shares soar.

Are you being facetious? Such levels of wealth distort democracy with access to power. Such concentrations of wealth are bad for the consumer - it eliminates competition by swallowing up competition via M&As, market dominance etc. and don’t get me started on the term “self-made”

Food is not a human right. Most people assume it must be. Food is a basic necessity for survival, so it feels natural to treat access to it as a fundamental right. But when activists and politicians declare that “everyone has a right to food”, they are not talking about a right in the traditional sense. They are claiming a positive right – an entitlement that others must be forced to fulfil. This view confuses needs with rights. A genuine right, properly understood, is a claim of non-interference. You have a right not to be killed, assaulted or stolen from. These rights impose a duty on others to refrain from certain actions. They do not require anyone to provide you with food, shelter or healthcare. A “right to food", by contrast, means that farmers, truck drivers, shopkeepers and taxpayers can be compelled - through taxation, regulation, or outright seizure - to supply it. This turns productive people into obligated servants of those who claim the right. It is not a right; it is a claim on other people’s labour and property. Once the state accepts a duty to guarantee food, it must also claim the power to control production, prices and distribution. History shows what follows: central planning, shortages and the expansion of coercive authority over those who actually produce the food. You cannot have both a right to other people’s labour and genuine individual rights at the same time. One must give way to the other.

The story in four parts

Complaining about nightlife when you *checks notes* choose to live in Soho is like living in South Kensington and complaining about the museums.

Or moving to Hackney and grumbling about creatives. Living in Richmond and hating green space. 

It's all getting a bit silly, isn't it?

Caroline Lucas: "We need to recognise that what happened on the streets of Belfast was being orchestrated by the far right, by Elon Musk, by a network of people who actually want this to happen, so it wasn't quite as spontaneous as it looked.. and that has to be stopped"