We are clearly living through a period of national autophagy. What's happening all around us is causing a great deal of confusion, so I thought it might help to look at this from an economic perspective.

The federal bureaucracy was largely created by the New Deal, which depended on an expanding American empire. In 1935, US debt/GDP was around 39% and the world traded in physical gold, the Pound Sterling and the USD. By winning WWII, American institutional power was set in stone, both at home and abroad. For generations, Americans largely lived and died believing in Pax Americana.

Today the American empire has begun to visibly shrink. US debt/GDP is at 123%, the USD is slowly losing its reserve currency status and the prospects for American expansion are low. Decades after Reagan and Thatcher, the bond market is in total control of public spending. America is locked in an intense security and technology race with a peer competitor. Is it any wonder that institutions are being remodeled? The economics of an empire determine its laws and the shape of its institutions.

None of the above is an endorsement of empire. Creating, maintaining and unwinding them always leaves a stack of bodies too horrifying for most people to consider. Don't forget that if this stuff makes you rich.

> The justices allowed the president to fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, striking down a nearly century-old precedent intended to insulate independent agencies from political influence by the executive.

https://archive.is/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2...

https://archive.is/quZsy

Further reading, which actually goes into the majority opinion from Slaughter, and importantly contrasts it with Cook:

https://reason.com/volokh/2026/06/29/supreme-court-ends-agen...

See also perhaps article "Supreme Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner and overturns major restraint on presidential power":

* https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/court-allows-trump-to-fir...

AIUI, independent agencies that Congress creates are now no longer indepedendent.