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Independent Institute

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The Independent Institute is a public policy think tank located in Oakland, California. On The Bob Zadek Show, its mission was described by research associate Jonathan Hofer as advancing free people and free markets, with its website given as independent.org. A PSA on ALPRs (2022) Host Bob Zadek characterized the Institute as a very active group of scholars who study domestic and foreign affairs, holding what he called a somewhat, perhaps substantial libertarian perspective, while providing what he described as an enormous wealth of objective information. United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014)

Scholars and roles

Guests introduced on the program held a range of positions at the Institute. Burton Abrams, an economist who teaches at the University of Delaware, was described as a research fellow at the Institute and director of its Government Cost Calculator, a website at mygovcost.org that Abrams said calculates likely lifetime tax liabilities and benefits and whether a person is losing or winning, with most people losing. Abrams credited his predecessors at the Institute with the hard work of building the calculator and said it could be improved over time, noting that much redistribution occurs in covert ways. Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014)

Ivan Eland was introduced as a senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Institute. Zadek noted Eland’s graduate training, his prior role as director of defense policy studies at Cato, fifteen years working with Congress, and his authorship of Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq. United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014)

Lawrence J. McQuillan was identified as a senior fellow and director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation at the Institute. Homelessness & Housing Policy in the Golden State (2020)

Jonathan Hofer was introduced as a research associate at the Institute, described as having studied privacy law, local law governance, and the impact of emerging technologies on civil liberties. A PSA on ALPRs (2022)

Policy areas discussed by Institute guests

Institute-affiliated guests addressed several distinct policy domains on the show. Abrams’s episode concerned his book The Terrible 10: A Century of Economic Folly, which Zadek described as a list of the ten worst economic mistakes of the 20th century, including Prohibition, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and the structure of Social Security and Medicare, along with the conflict between Tesla Motors and state-protected auto dealerships. Worst Ten Economic Mistakes of the 20th Century (2014)

Eland’s appearance concerned United States intervention in the Middle East, the failures of the Iraq War, and partitioning the country for stability; Zadek framed the hour around war, peace, and isolationism, and described the United States as deeply involved in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Northern Africa, Libya, Israel, and Lebanon. United Iraq Falls: Ivan Eland on Partitioning for Peace (2014)

McQuillan’s episode covered the root causes of California’s housing crisis, focusing on government-induced supply restrictions through zoning, building codes, and the California Environmental Quality Act, and on market-based alternatives such as private homeowner associations. Homelessness & Housing Policy in the Golden State (2020)

Hofer’s two episodes concerned Automated License Plate Readers. He said that in terms of numbers the most prolific tool of mass surveillance today is automated license plate readers, that they had only been around a few years and were quickly expanding, and that if a town does not have one it is soon coming to a place near you. A PSA on ALPRs (2022) In the later episode he compared license plate readers with facial recognition, saying the issues are very similar and that they are used similarly tactically by police, with the same data collection and tracing problems, but that the bigger concern is license plate readers based on their number, since facial recognition is far and few between and cities including Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco have banned it, while most cities have not banned license plate readers. A PSA on ALPRs (2022)

Across episodes: the Institute as a recurring source

The Institute appears across four episodes spanning 2014 to 2022, and the episodes show no development in how the organization itself is described: each appearance introduces a different affiliated scholar — Abrams in 2014, Eland in 2014, McQuillan in 2020, and Hofer in 2022 — and the descriptions of the Institute remain consistent, with Hofer supplying the only statement of its mission and location. A PSA on ALPRs (2022)

Guests and episodes

5 appearances by 4 guests, 2014–2022. Guests A–Z by first name.

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