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September 10, 2025

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

Greetings,

This week, our writers tackle big questions across the board. What limits American power? Who picks our voters? Is housing a sacred cow or a legitimate policy issue? And just how far can presidents push their spending power?

To start, Ivan Eland revisits the enduring relevance of realism in global affairs, as the Ukraine conflict exposes the constraints of American triumphalism.

Alex and Kristin Tokarev write on the ongoing Texas and California gerrymandering scandal, discussing how it undermines democratic accountability by letting politicians choose their voters.

Scott Beyer critiques the belief that housing is an untouchable investment, revealing how this mindset fuels rent-seeking.

Sam Jenson contrasts California’s stalled clean energy ambitions with Texas’s rapid progress, highlighting the role of the regulatory environment.

Finally, Craig Eyermann analyzes President Trump’s $4.9 billion pocket rescission, a bold maneuver that is poised to cause a constitutional showdown over executive versus congressional control of federal spending.

Happy reading.

Jonathan Hofer
Managing Editor

Top picks this week
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** A Return to Realism ([link removed])
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** by Ivan Eland
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Despite the dismissal of spheres of influence and balances of power as obsolete in the post-Cold War world, realism will never go out of style.
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** Gerrymandering: Politicians Choosing Their Voters ([link removed])
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** by Alex Tokarev and Kristin Tokarev
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How does gerrymandering work? And what should we do about it?
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** How Boomers Rob Millennials of the American Dream ([link removed])
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** by Scott Beyer
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Young adults priced out of homeownership while many Boomers buy up multiple homes. This discrepancy isn’t an accident; it’s the outcome of a protectionist system that Boomers themselves have built.
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** California’s Renewable Energy ([link removed])
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** California’s “progressive” policies stifle technological progress ([link removed])
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** by Sam Jenson
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California envisions a clean energy future—but regulatory agencies in the state have created a bureaucratic bottleneck, and no one is building.
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** Pocket Rescission to Test Constitution ([link removed])
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** by Craig Eyermann
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Whose power over spending is supreme? That’s a big legal question that needs an answer.
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** FEATURED BOOK — OUT SOON!
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** A Balance of Titans ([link removed])
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** Peace and Liberty in the New Multipolar World ([link removed])
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** By Ivan Eland
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“Ivan Eland proposes a bold new foreign policy for the United States, one that would encourage other nations to share the burdens of policing the world, saving the United States billions in defense spending and making peace more likely and sustainable.” —Harvey Sapolsky, professor emeritus of public policy and organization, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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