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November 19, 2025

Welcome to The Lighthouse, the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute covering politics, economics, current events, and everything in between.

Dear Readers,

From the politics of shutdowns, to the future of AI-driven infrastructure, to the many ills of NIMBYism, this week’s articles analyze the shifting contours of governance and economics.

This week, Craig Eyermann dissects the 43-day government shutdown of 2025. He shows how it exposed the futility of weaponizing shutdowns and why essential services may need to shift beyond federal control.

Allen Gindler argues that central banks weren’t born from market innovation but political expediency—they’re tools to finance wars and consolidate state power, often at the expense of monetary stability.

Scott Beyer examines how AI-powered digital replicas of infrastructure could revolutionize disaster response and project efficiency, while cautioning about challenges in cost, data quality, and government capacity.

Kristian Fors critiques the efficient market hypothesis, arguing why human biases, structural distortions, and persistent fund outperformance render it an inadequate model of reality.

Lloyd Billingsley recounts the backlash to Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, urging Trump to revive America’s jazz diplomacy tradition as a more enduring legacy of liberty.

Happy reading.

Jonathan Hofer
Managing Editor

Top picks this week


** VIDEO
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** Independent Conversations | How NIMBYism Worsens California’s Housing Crisis | Christopher Calton ([link removed])
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Due to their persistent interference with much-needed housing projects, the Independent Institute is awarding the seventeenth California Golden Fleece® Award to the many NIMBY groups and individuals that have contributed to the state’s housing crisis.
Watch Now ([link removed])

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** A Postmortem on the 2025 Government Shutdown ([link removed])
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** by Craig Eyermann
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Why should regular Americans be inconvenienced because the federal government plays by such dumb rules?
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** The Emergence of the Central Bank ([link removed])
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** by Allen Gindler
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Any serious monetary reform project must confront not only economic arguments, but also the political and ideological forces that have “domesticated” central banking.
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** Can We Automate Our Way to Better Infrastructure? ([link removed])
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** Some researchers think digital twins can improve disaster response and reduce infrastructure costs. ([link removed])
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** by Scott Beyer
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Early adoption of digital twins into high-level government research and the private sector suggests that they will soon be implemented in a city near you.
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** Information and Irrationality in the Stock Market: A Criticism of the Efficient Market Hypothesis ([link removed])
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** Part 1 of our efficient market hypothesis debate ([link removed])
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** by Kristian Fors
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If economists and social scientists want to understand financial markets properly, a multidisciplinary approach is necessary.
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** White House Ballroom Backlash ([link removed])
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** And a more entertaining plan for the president’s legacy ([link removed])
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** by K. Lloyd Billingsley
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There are a lot of other things that would be a better legacy than a ballroom that, despite private funding, shapes up as Trump’s monument to himself.
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** FEATURED BOOK
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** Beyond Homeless ([link removed])
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** Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes, Transformative Solutions ([link removed])
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** Edited by Mary L. G. Theroux, Lawrence J. McQuillan, and Adam B. Summers
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“With an impressive array of scholars and data, Beyond Homeless should be essential reading for those curious about how to change course on homelessness.”

—Judge Glock, Director of Research and Senior Fellow at the

Manhattan Institute; contributing editor of City Journal
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