January 13, 2021 | Weekly Newsletter
 
By John C. Goodman (Townhall, 12/23/20)

On TV, on radio, and in newspapers, critics of the Trump administration focused their attacks on the president rather than the policies. Its greatest achievements—involving tax reform, economic deregulation, and health care issues such as telemedicine and insurance portability—deserve high praise. READ MORE »
 
By Williamson M. Evers (The American Spectator, 12/30/20)

President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for U.S. Secretary of Education, Connecticut education commissioner Miguel A. Cardona, is a prize for teachers’ unions and identity politics. Expect K-12 classrooms to see more political indoctrination against capitalism and in favor of misguided revisionism à la the New York Times’s 1619 Project, which claims that all institutions in America are inescapably racist. READ MORE »
 
Is It Time for a “490 B.C. Project”?
High Schoolers Need to Know Our Classical Heritage

By Morgan E. Hunter, Williamson M. Evers, Victor Davis Hanson
By Lee E. Ohanian (California on Your Mind, 12/1/20)

A mere 23-pages long, California’s economic recovery task-force report is a missed opportunity for reducing the state’s high cost of living, for streamlining government bureaucracy, and for promoting pro-growth tax and regulatory policies. The report’s main function, it seems, is to provide broad-based political cover for economic lockdown policies that are among the worst in the country. READ MORE »
 
Infectious Diseases and Government Growth
By Nathan P. Goodman, Christopher J. Coyne, Abigail Devereaux
By Richard K. Vedder (Forbes, 1/7/21)

Betsy DeVos, who announced her resignation as U.S. Secretary of Education last Thursday night, has been exemplary in serving the cause of higher education. She will be best remembered for rolling back regulatory excesses of the Obama era, most notably the horrible 2011 “dear colleague” letter that pressured colleges and universities to address complaints of sexual harassment by denying basic due process protections for the accused. READ MORE »
 
By Art Carden (American Institute for Economic Research, 11/30/20)

Marx and Engels summed up communism as “the abolition of private property,” and Ludwig von Mises called socialism “the abolition of rational economy.” Both terms boil down to “a centrally planned economy in which government controls the means of production”—which means: no market prices or profit-and-loss signals to guide resources to their highest and best use. READ MORE »
 
The Beacon: New Blog Posts
An easy and free way to support Independent is to set us as your designated charity on AmazonSmile. Then, when you buy something on Amazon, head to smile.amazon.com and a portion of the purchase price will be donated to Independent at no cost to you.
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
The Lighthouse, written by Carl P. Close, is made possible by the generous contributions of supporters of the Independent Institute. If you enjoy The Lighthouse, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Independent Institute. Click here to unsubscribe.

Past issues of The Lighthouse | Other Publications

The Lighthouse®
ISSN 1526-173X | © 2021
Independent Institute
100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428
(510) 632-1366

You received this message because you are subscribed to The Lighthouse.