As 2025 draws to a close, I look back on the previous year as a period of unexpected twists and turns in the local, national, and international arenas. By maintaining an intellectual commitment to the principles of a free society, the Independent Institute met these challenges with cutting edge-analysis and scholarly rigor.
Last January, a sudden wildfire outbreak not only ravaged the Los Angeles area—it also displaced our Research Fellow, Kristian Fors, from his home. Undeterred, he went on national media to explain how decades of government mismanagement and bad policies left Californians vulnerable to natural disasters.
In April, the Trump administration imposed a sweeping new tariff regime by invoking a constitutionally dubious “emergency” statute. Independent rallied a group of leading economists, including three Nobel laureates, to explain the errors of this misguided tax hike through our Anti-Tariff Declaration. In the months that followed, our research guided the national conversation on this issue and informed an ongoing legal challenge that currently sits before the Supreme Court.
Last fall, the unthinkable happened. Previously confined to the garbage heap of history, the doctrines of Marxian socialism gained currency in American politics, with almost 50% of voters under the age of 35 holding this dangerous ideology in high esteem. Led by my colleague Williamson Evers, Independent launched a new initiative to provide K-12 curricular materials on the horrific history and abysmal economic track record of socialism worldwide. We plan to release these materials to schools free of charge this coming spring, as part of a larger educational initiative to defend the principles of a free society and free-market economy against this illiberal intellectual tide.
