Welcome to Z-Pack:.your antidote to the 24/7 news cycle. Cut through the noise, understand what matters, and get on with your week - in 5 minutes

If this is your first Z-Pack, welcome - I'm Zach.

_{The vibe-killer disclaimer: The opinions in this post and all other posts only represent myself and do not represent the opinions of my employer or any groups I am a member of.
This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.}

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Chaos mode

If you live under a rock (no judgement, honestly sounds peaceful), you may have missed that the current administration is whipping up its signature Potion of Chaos™ and forcing all of us to take a fat sip.

The latest recipe? A flurry of executive orders, policy rollbacks, and legally questionable moves that may or may not hold up in court (when/if they’re challenged). Think of it as governance by piñata – whack the system hard enough and maybe something useful will fall out.

And if you think this “move fast, break things” approach is a good thing, you may want to consider the wise words of economist Adam Ozimek: “Civil society and the institutions that comprise it are not a tech company. Things can break, people can die, and you can’t put it all back together with a hackathon.”

This best sums up the current administration’s super-elite methodology to governing:

Sure, a lot of these moves are not even legal, but that doesn’t mean they won’t create chaos in the meantime—and if there’s one thing that people (especially businesses) hate, it’s uncertainty.

In case you’ve forgotten, ‘blowing everything up’ is not a constructive solution to anything.

The Real Damage: When Chaos Freezes Progress

Yes, we’re back in Chaos Mode. In this most recent storm, some genuinely good things are getting caught in the crossfire.

Take the recent funding pauses—executive orders that hit everything from cancer research (ongoing clinical trials!) to U.S. foreign aid (oh you know just the thing that helps save millions of lives and maintains America’s global influence).

Let me help you understand the real impact of USAID, the U.S. foreign aid agency now facing sudden funding cuts.

Why Should You Care?

For starters, USAID is just 0.2% of the federal budget. That’s a rounding error in government spending — so small that a single American with a median income makes a contribution of roughly $40 a year in taxes.

Literally like paying a YMCA membership for one month.

And we STILL do it better than most other developed countries 😤

Yet that tiny sliver of money goes a long way:

✅ PEPFAR—The program that has saved millions of lives from HIV/AIDS (originally passed by [of all people] George W. Bush).

Before this pause in funding ProPublica reported that “up through last week, PEPFAR was providing HIV treatment to an estimated 680,000 pregnant women, the majority of whom are in Africa. A 90-day stoppage could lead to an estimated 136,000 babies acquiring HIV.”

✅ GAVI—The vaccine alliance that has immunized hundreds of millions of kids against diseases.
✅ The Green Revolution—increasing crop yields to feed millions.
✅ The Carter Center—On the verge of eradicating guinea worm disease from the planet._{(s/o to Our World in Data’s great post on foreign aid for all of this info)}

If you’re thinking, “Wait, that sounds like an absurdly 🔥 deal,” you’d be correct.

The U.S. Is (Quietly) the World's Biggest Humanitarian Power

On top of that, the majority of foreign aid (in general) goes to the poorest countries

Look at the U.S. go 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Despite what the haters might tell you, the U.S. is the world’s largest foreign aid donor. And while, yes, some projects fail (or even cause harm), the reality is this:

💡 For the price of a single dinner at Applebee’s with drinks (not that I would know…), you’re funding programs that save millions of lives.

So maybe instead of slashing foreign aid indiscriminately, we should.. I don’t know… reform the bad parts and keep the wildly successful ones?

As smart-guy Matt Glassman wrote, “If there's money at USAID that isn't worth spending---and I bet there is!---I'm very open to the admin doing a FY26 request with cuts and defending it on the Hill. But impounding money and shuttering an (arguably) statutory agency by fiat is pseudo-monarchy nonsense.”

But Zach, How Does This Affect Me?

Great question!!

Beyond the fact that ya know, helping people not die is generally good, USAID also serves a very strategic function: soft power.

Translation: Foreign aid is not just charity — it’s geopolitics. Two birds with one stone.

When the U.S. helps build infrastructure, improve health, and promote democracy in developing countries, we’re not just being nice. We’re making sure those countries:

• Don’t fall under the influence of dictatorships (cough cough China or Russia — who would love to replace us).

• Stay aligned with current global order values, like human rights (I’m talking French Revolution-values, not Left-liberal)

• Actually want to do business with us (ergo, make things cheaper for you!)

Dr. Sarah Paine puts it best:

^{FYI I wrote earlier on the importance of maintaining this peaceful global order here and how it affects your pocketbook}

Or, to put it more bluntly: we don’t live in a vacuum. If the U.S. stops playing the game that made us and the world (including China!) so wealthy, China and authoritarian regimes will happily step in and change the rules.

Which means we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot—economically, diplomatically, and even militarily.
_{PSA: If you and a repressive dictator have the same foreign policy takes, you may need to rethink some life choices.}

So, it’s entirely in your interest to maintain AND improve this system that has taken most of the world out of extreme poverty 💋

Trust me, we don’t want to go back to the jungle, before our current era of ‘countries-play-nice-together’.

So, What Happens Next?

Honestly? We trudge through Chaos Mode™ — where executive orders fly and legality is just a suggestion, like DOGE trying to fire USAID officials.

Sure, the courts might reverse these moves, but in the meantime, clinical trials get halted, and life-saving aid is stuck in limbo.

So it’s worth remembering: reckless governance isn’t just some D.C. reality show. It has real-world consequences.

Good luck to all of us as we ride out this administration’s policy beta test.

And while we can't control these chaotic waves, we can make sure we protect our focus.

Because at the end of the day, what do we do when the world feels like it’s spiraling? We keep doing the things that make life meaningful and good — the same things that have gotten us this far and will get us through.

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

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