Independent Conversations

With California electricity demand growing exponentially, why is the state holding so tenaciously to its ban on new nuclear power plants? Why has California closed itself off from the largest source of carbon-free power...

When U.S. and Israeli bombs fall on Iran, and Iranian bombs then strike American regional bases and even ritzy hotels in Dubai, it sure looks like war. Did the President have the authority for this war under the...

Could society manage if we didn’t have a government forcing us to do things? Would everything descend into chaos? Or are there resources in our human nature that enable us to adjust ourselves lawfully to one another...

The U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to implement tariffs. What does the Court’s ruling mean? And what’s next for tariffs, and for...

Our own Christopher Briggs has been on a crusade to save his daughter from, not only cancer, but also Obamacare, the disastrously expensive government health insurance program that also denied her coverage twice in a...

Between the onslaught of federal immigration enforcement, and organized resistance to it, Minneapolis is being pushed to the brink. What made Minneapolis more of a crucible than other cities? Do anti-ICE protestors have...

Drawing on insights from his forthcoming book, The Independent Guide to the Constitution: Original Intentions, Modern Inventions, author William J. Watkins, Jr. will explore the history and distortions of key...

Does a U.S. President have the authority to order a military raid on a foreign capital like Caracas, Venezuela? Is the United States really going to “run” Venezuela as President Trump said, or will it take some slightly...

There's been time to reflect on the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles of January 2025. What have we learned about the fires’ origins? And more importantly what have we learned about what could have been done—and what...

For those who care about liberty, 2025 was a mixed bag. On the down side, socialism was embraced explicitly by some Americans on the left, and implicitly by some on the right. On the up side, the principle that people...

What’s going on at the Heritage Foundation and elsewhere, with confusion about how to deal with antisemitism and more broadly with what is being called “post-liberalism”? And also, why is President Trump suing the BBC...

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...

What makes government shutdowns drag on? On the other hand, how much does it matter? Shutdown or no shutdown, President Trump’s tariffs are about to go before the Supreme Court; and in the meantime, the President keeps...

Entire neighborhoods across the U.S. have become open-air asylums, drug markets, and impoverished wastelands—despite billions poured into homelessness programs. The tragic truth? The prevailing “solutions,” like Housing...

Los Angeles has a metropolitan transit system—the L.A. Metro for short—but few people want to ride it because it’s dirty and unsafe, and doesn’t go where they want to go. Taxpayer advocates balk at the billions of tax...