The Freethinking Times https://thefreethinkingtimes.com Independent journalism. Investigative. Philosophical. Adversarial to power. en Federal Regulators Quietly Shelved Three Major Investigations Last Quarter https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/news/federal-regulators-shelved-investigations/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/news/federal-regulators-shelved-investigations/ Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Documents obtained through FOIA requests reveal that enforcement actions against major financial institutions were dropped without explanation in the final weeks of the fiscal year. News Staff Reporter On Your Coverage of Regulatory Capture https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/letters/on-regulatory-capture-coverage/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/letters/on-regulatory-capture-coverage/ Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT A reader with thirty years in federal regulatory work responds to our field guide. Letters Letters Editor The Newspaper Didn't Die. It Was Sold for Parts. https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/opinion/newspaper-sold-for-parts/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/opinion/newspaper-sold-for-parts/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The collapse of local journalism is not a market failure. It is the predictable outcome of private equity treating public institutions as inventory. Opinion The Editors What the Replication Crisis Actually Tells Us About How Science Works https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/science-technology/replication-crisis/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/science-technology/replication-crisis/ Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The failure of a large number of published findings to replicate is not a scandal. It is science functioning as designed — just more visibly than usual. Science & Technology The Editors City's Affordable Housing Fund Diverted to Consultant Contracts, Records Show https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/news/affordable-housing-fund-consulting/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/news/affordable-housing-fund-consulting/ Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT An eighteen-month review of municipal spending records reveals that nearly a third of the city's affordable housing allocation went to consulting firms, not housing. News Staff Reporter The First Gilded Age Ended. Here Is What It Took. https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/history/first-gilded-age-ended/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/history/first-gilded-age-ended/ Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The concentration of wealth and power in the late nineteenth century looked permanent until it didn't. The mechanisms of change are worth studying carefully. History The Editors How Regulatory Capture Actually Works: A Field Guide https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/analysis/regulatory-capture-field-guide/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/analysis/regulatory-capture-field-guide/ Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The textbook definition of regulatory capture is too clean. Here is how the process actually unfolds, in practice, across industries and decades. Analysis The Editors On Epistemic Humility and the Academy https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/letters/on-epistemic-humility-academy/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/letters/on-epistemic-humility-academy/ Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT A philosopher takes issue — respectfully — with our characterization of performed uncertainty. Letters Letters Editor On the Moral Cowardice of Epistemic Humility https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/opinion/moral-cowardice-epistemic-humility/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/opinion/moral-cowardice-epistemic-humility/ Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT There is a difference between genuine uncertainty and the performance of uncertainty as a way of avoiding difficult conclusions. Our public discourse has become expert at the latter. Opinion The Editors What We Talk About When We Talk About 'Difficult' Books https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/arts-culture/difficult-books/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/arts-culture/difficult-books/ Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The literary establishment's comfort with calling certain books difficult says more about the establishment than the books. Arts & Culture The Editors The Attention Economy's Bargain, and Who Is Paying for It https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/analysis/attention-economy-bargain/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/analysis/attention-economy-bargain/ Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A close look at what the business model of free digital services actually extracts, from whom, and what the downstream consequences have been. Analysis Staff Reporter The Infrastructure Nobody Talks About: How the Internet Actually Stays On https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/science-technology/internet-infrastructure/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/science-technology/internet-infrastructure/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Beneath the platforms and apps that dominate public discussion sits a layer of physical and institutional infrastructure that is aging, concentrated, and poorly understood. Science & Technology Staff Reporter Cinema's Nostalgia Problem Is a Thinking Problem https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/arts-culture/cinema-nostalgia-problem/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/arts-culture/cinema-nostalgia-problem/ Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT The film industry's retreat into franchises and reboots is not primarily an aesthetic failure. It is an epistemological one. Arts & Culture The Editors The Pentagon Papers at Fifty-Plus: What We Actually Learned https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/history/pentagon-papers-lessons/ https://thefreethinkingtimes.com/history/pentagon-papers-lessons/ Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT The publication of the Pentagon Papers is remembered as a triumph of press freedom. The deeper lesson — about institutional deception and its durability — is less often drawn. History The Editors