Build, Baby

The Trump administration is said to be moving away from its plan to create a 50-year mortgage. Good, Steven Malanga writes. The policy would’ve saddled homeowners with more interest for longer, all without addressing the underlying problem: constrained supply. “By making financing easier without increasing the number of homes,” he explains, “the proposed policy would likely be counterproductive—more money chasing too few houses would simply drive prices higher.”

A 50-year mortgage would also introduce new risks. With the principal paid down so slowly, many borrowers could be left underwater from even a modest downturn. “Households facing job loss or financial strain would then be trapped in properties they can’t afford and can’t sell for enough to cover the loan, setting the stage for another wave of foreclosures,” Malanga writes.

The real key to addressing our housing market woes? Build, baby.

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court recently reinstated the lawsuit Henderson v. Springfield R-12 School District. The case concerns the school district in Springfield, Missouri, which, in 2020, required employees to complete equity training. Among other instructions, trainees were told to outline the steps they would take to become “anti-racist.”

“The point wasn’t to teach staff about applicable law but to get them to agree to contested ideological claims,” Ilya Shapiro writes. Two employees sued, with one stating that the district had compelled adoption of its preferred answers. The district court not only dismissed the case but also slapped a $312,869.50 fee on the employees for frivolous litigation.

“More broadly, Henderson is another important step in the pushback against DEI,” Shapiro writes. “What it does—properly—is draw a constitutional line to prevent DEI demands from becoming ideological tests.”

Read his breakdown of the case.

Recently, Naomi Schaefer Riley participated in a debate with Martin Guggenheim, an emeritus professor at the New York University School of Law. They discussed whether government-run child protective services should intervene in children’s lives.

“Arguing in the affirmative, I noted that more than 2,000 children die each year as a result of maltreatment, and the vast majority of their cases involved reports to authorities (often several) made before the fatal incident,” Riley writes. Guggenheim argued that the government unnecessarily separates poor and black children from their families, and that the U.S. should provide universal health care and free childcare to help children.

“What made Guggenheim’s position confusing,” Riley writes, “is that he seemed to think both that the U.S. government is evil, corrupt, and incompetent, and that it should vastly expand its footprint, making it responsible for ‘family well-being.’”

Read her take on the debate, and what so many activists get wrong about child welfare.

The Manhattan Institute is proud to serve as the Principal Institutional Partner for the Sun Valley Policy Forum’s 2026 Winter Summit in the iconic resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho on February 11, 2026.

We are thrilled to join Joe Lonsdale and MI senior fellow Christopher F. Rufo for an evening on principled leadership and the future of American institutions in an AI-driven era. Please click here to learn more about the Sun Valley Policy Forum and our partnership and to purchase tickets at a discounted rate for friends of the Manhattan Institute.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and State Senator Julia Salazar aren’t New York City’s first experience with socialists. In the 1930s and 1940s, Vito Marcantonio and the American Labor Party (ALP) were “a force to be reckoned with,” Joseph Burns writes. Marcantonio was first elected to Congress in 1934, and won six more elections between 1938 and 1948.

“Founded in 1936, the ALP represented the extreme Left in New York politics—much like today’s Working Families Party,” Burns explains. “Its founders came from some of the most radical corners of organized labor. Many were socialists. Some were Communists.”

Read more about their influence.

“There’s a saying that’s been proven true: when adults say they are trans, those adults are mentally ill; when children say they are trans, their mothers are mentally ill.”

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