The Power of Independent Thinking

←  PUBLICATIONS



Stay Connected
Get the latest updates straight to your inbox.



The Lighthouse®

The Lighthouse® is the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute.
Subscribe now, or browse Back Issues.


Volume 23, Issue 16: May 6, 2021

By Judy L. Shelton (Wall Street Journal)
In the aftermath of an economic and financial challenge that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently likened to Dunkirk, there’s a remarkable uniformity of opinion or groupthink on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Apparently, they all always agree on the appropriateness of the Fed’s expansionary monetary-policy decisions. And that should cause us all to worry. READ MORE »

Future
Economic Peril or Prosperity?
Edited by Robert M. Whaples, Christopher J. Coyne, Michael C. Munger


By Victor Davis Hanson (American Greatness)
What is the Biden way? To surveil, monitor, root out, raid, jail, confine, and smear all impediments to fundamental transformation. But after a hundred days of President Biden, most Americans are now on to what the next few years will bring. And it will be bleak. Bleak indeed.... READ MORE »



By Williamson M. Evers and Jonathan Hofer (The Hill)
Despite the real threats of large-scale data breaches, California and other states have failed to recognize a definitive right to remedy, or prevent, damages caused by negligent data holders. And that is a problem, since at least 75 percent of all data breach incidents affecting U.S. public K-12 school districts stemmed from lax security measures at third-party vendors. Solutions to this “stupid amount of vulnerability”? For starters, enshrine in law a student’s right to have his data deleted from third-party vendors (the “right to be forgotten”) and allow ordinary persons to bring their own lawsuits against the companies that violate privacy rights. READ MORE »



By Richard K. Vedder (Forbes)
Three American universities recently responded to the current zeitgeist. Howard University, the nation’s leading historically black college, just closed down its Classics Department. The University of Texas at Austin just issued a new “Strategic Plan for Faculty Diversity, Equity, and Skills” that ignores the most important diversity of all: the right to speak one’s opinions, no matter how unpopular. But Purdue University, under the leadership of President Mitch Daniels, is imposing a civic literacy requirement on its incoming students. Which one, do you think, offers value for money—and just might help heal the divisions in the country? READ MORE »



By K. Lloyd Billingsley (The Epoch Times)
When Kamala Harris became Vice President of the United States, Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to replace her. And for a man nobody voted for, the privileged Padilla has said some amazingly hostile things about the elections the Framers wanted us to have—such as the Electoral College (not slavery?) is America’s “original sin.” But, not to worry. Senator Padilla has a solution: replace the Electoral College by an imported illegal electorate. Is this what Joe Biden means when he touts California as a model for the nation? READ MORE »



By John C. Goodman (Forbes)
A proposal by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and other Senate Democrats would allow persons between the ages of 50 and 64 to buy into Medicare (the Medicare at 50 Act)—and do so for a lot less than actuarially fair premiums. Basically, the act is yet another Big Government give-away. But if that is what the Senate Democrats have in mind, young seniors should make a counteroffer: “Send us the subsidy in the form of a check we can deposit in our bank account and let us stick with the (better) insurance we already have.” READ MORE »





  • Catalyst
  • Beyond Homeless
  • MyGovCost.org
  • FDAReview.org
  • OnPower.org
  • elindependent.org