From the Independent Institute

Thanksgiving may just be our favorite time of year: a time to pause to consider and give thanks for our many blessings. We’re grateful for the courageous scholars who came before us, discovering economic laws governing the universe, and freeing us from the fallacies of Big Government: from the Christian scholastics 400 years ago to their intellectual heirs, the “Austrian School of economics” and classical liberals across many disciplines. We’re grateful for the wonderful scholars with whom we’re privileged to work today, from our Research Director Alex Tabarrok and Senior Fellows such as Robert Higgs, to our more than 140 Research Fellows, producing insightful solutions furthering peaceful, prosperous, and free societies, grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity. We’re grateful for our loyal supporters, whose commitment to the ideals of liberty make possible the production and broad dissemination of our principled studies furthering societies rooted in the rich traditions of freedom. We’re grateful to our 296,000 Facebook followers on ourIndependent Institute and MyGovCost Facebook pages, providing lively conversation around our studies, across huge social networks. We’re grateful to the many millions of educators and students, business and civic leaders, policymakers, journalists, and individual citizens who regularly use our books and other publications, articles, videos, audios, and much more. In short, we are grateful that despite the very real challenges facing those who value free people and societies, there is tremendous cause for hope, with the yearning for liberty alive and thriving. This Thanksgiving, please join with us in reminding those with whom we share the holiday the lessons from the first Thanksgiving—and celebrate the rich traditions of economic opportunity, secure property rights, personal responsibility, and the rule of law that created a land in which all could succeed, regardless of birth or position. May the holiday offer warmth, peace, and hope to you and yours. In gratitude, David J. Theroux P.S. If you would like to share the blessings of liberty, your tax-deductible contribution of $100 or more to the Independent Institute will include your choice of a FREEbook such as Living Economics, Peter Boettke’s loving discourse on the voluntary institutions that bring humanity together, or Robert Higgs’s monumental book, Crisis and Leviathan, now in our special 25th Anniversary Edition. David J. Theroux Founder and President The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA 94621 Phone (510) 632-1366 Fax (510) 568-6040