Last week Independent Institute hosted a two-day Scholars’ Summit, bringing together a group of affiliated research fellows and allied researchers from throughout the country. Attendees worked together to shape some forthcoming projects by Independent Institute while also strategizing on how to take advantage of research opportunities on subjects such as the nexus of fiscal and monetary policies, private solutions to public policy problems, America’s 250th Anniversary, topics in surveillance, the American West and defending free markets in an increasingly anti-market world.

This week’s articles especially focused on the last of those themes, defending markets. We revisit persistent myths surrounding tariffs with two installments of Scott A. Burns and Caleb Fuller’s Debunking the New Mercantilists series and an article by Thomas J. Grennes. Scott Beyer writes about the optimism we should feel about AI. Ethan Yang covers the EU’s evolving stance towards antitrust and Craig Eyermann writes about the U.S. credit rating downgrade.

Happy reading!

Jonathan Hofer
Managing Editor