Tom Giovanetti is president of the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), a conservative, free-market public policy research organization based in Dallas, Texas.
In addition to his administrative duties, Tom writes for IPI and for leading publications on a variety of policy topics including taxes and economic growth, self-government and the Founders' design, civil liberties and constitutional protections, judicial supremacy, intellectual property, Social Security personal accounts, technology and Internet policy, and out-of-control government spending. In addition to being regularly published in major outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, FoxNews.com and The Dallas Morning News, Tom has a regular column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Tom frequently appears in the media and is a fill-in host for the Mark Davis Show in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
Tom's passion is encouraging conservative voters and organizations to remain skeptical of Big Government, maintain faith in markets, and defend individual liberty as the best means of achieving human flourishing. His most recent work has focused on free-market solutions to the student debt issue, preserving freedom of speech online, and persuading state legislatures to override local and municipal policies that restrict economic liberty.
Mr. Giovanetti has represented IPI at many national and international organizations, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) the World Health Organization (WHO) and represented IPI during trade agreement negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Mr. Giovanetti is a popular speaker and writer, and also testifies before state and federal legislative committees on a variety of topics.
Follow Tom on Twitter at @tgiovanetti
IPI Policy Basics: What Is a Recession and Why Does It Matter? (Audio: Podcast)
In this episode, IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews discuss the various definitions of recession, what causes recessions, what’s the harm of recession, and are there any possible silver linings to a recession? Are recessions always unintentional, or are they sometimes intentional?
Should the Federal Government Subsidize Domestic Microchip Manufacturing (Audio: Podcast)
Should national security interests trump free-market proponents’ usual anti-corporate welfare, no subsidy, no trade distortions approach to policy? What constitutes a genuine national security consideration, since using national security as an invalid excuse has been used in the past. IPI President Tom Giovanetti, Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews, and Senior Research Fellow Bartlett Cleland discuss the legitimacy of federal policies that favor domestic sourcing of critical products such as microchips, pharmaceutical ingredients, rare earth metals, etc. for national security considerations.
The Texas Energy Grid, Resiliance, Fragility, and Why We Need An All-of-the-Above Energy Strategy (Audio: Podcast)
During our current hotter-than-usual summer, the Texas grid has come close to overcapacity several times. In light of the 2021 Texas freeze and blackouts, the Texas electrical grid is the subject of increased scrutiny. IPI President Tom Giovanetti, Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews, and Senior Research Fellow Bartlett Cleland discuss electrical generation and transmission, solar, wind and thermal generation, and what Texas needs to do going forward.
It's Not Just Oil Companies--It Takes Pipelines and Refineries, Too
President Biden’s rhetoric on energy these days suggests that he doesn’t actually understand all the things his administration has done to not only discourage oil and gas exploration, but also the construction of necessary pipelines and refineries. It’s incoherent for an anti-fossil fuels administration to berate the industry for not producing more. With IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews.
This Is What A Proper Supreme Court Looks Like
With blockbuster decisions ending this Supreme Court Term, IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews review the New York gun case, the Dobbs abortion decision, and the EPA case, and conclude that all three decisions reflect the proper role of the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Makes the Right Call on New York's Handgun Law (Audio: Podcast)
New York’s ban on handguns outside the home was always a violation of the Second Amendment, but it took this long for the right case to get to the right court. IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews discuss the fact that SCOTUS made it very clear that not only was the New York law unconstitutional, but that the court also made it clear that there is abundant room for reasonable regulations and restrictions on access to firearms.
Biden's Futility on Gas Prices (Audio: Podcast)
IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews and President Tom Giovanetti can’t get over the futility of the Biden administration’s rhetoric and proposals on high gas prices. The policies and rhetoric are incoherent and contradictory. So it goes for this administration.
Thoughts on the January 6th Investigation and Hearings (Audio: Podcast)
Should conservatives be dismissive about the findings of the January 6th Commission? Granted, the hearings aren’t really hearings, and the committee is composed entirely of critics, and there are no adversarial witnesses, but is there still value in learning the findings of the Commission? IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Director of Development Addie Crimmins share their thoughts.
IPI Policy Basics: Self-Government and the Superiority of the Legislative Branch (Audio: Podcast)
Solo this time, IPI President Tom Giovanetti explains that the very idea of self-government means rules agreed to through compromise and consensus-building, rather than being imposed on an unwilling people. If there is no consensus, there should be no rule. And because rules imposed by the Judicial Branch or the Executive Branch violate this principle, the Legislative Branch is the superior branch of government, as intended by the Founders. But sadly, today this is not how things function, and it’s part of the reason for the dysfunction and dissatisfaction with our American government.
What Share of the Hispanic Vote Would Give the GOP Political Dominance? (Audio: Podcast)
IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews suggests that the recent pattern of Hispanic voters increasingly voting Republican could actually give Republicans a structural political advantage, which is the opposite of the decades-long assumptions by Democrats. With IPI President Tom Giovanetti.
IPI Policy Basics: The Private Space Revolution (Audio: Podcast)
One thing the Obama administration got right was shifting NASA’s space program toward reliance on private space launch providers, which has led to an environment of much more rapid innovation, lower costs to taxpayers, and the emergence of multiple competing providers. IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews discuss how the private space revolution is yet another example of how the private sector does things better, faster, and cheaper.
Conservatives and Criminal Justice (Audio: Podcast)
IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Director of Development & Events Addie Crimmins discuss some recent death penalty drama in Texas, and relate that to the overall effort in recent years for conservatives to recognize that the criminal justice system as currently constituted doesn’t necessary reflect the values of the inherent dignity of human beings, justice, redemption and forgiveness, and thus needs reform in many areas. And we introduce our upcoming virtual policy briefing on this same topic scheduled for May 25, 2022.
IPI Policy Basics: Permissionless Innovation vs. the Precautionary Principle (Audio: Podcast)
IPI Senior Research Fellow Bartlett Cleland guides a discussion with IPI President Tom Giovanetti about the importance of permissionless innovation, and the problems with its opposite—the precautionary principle.
Proper Policymaking and the Implications of a Possible Roe Reversal (Audio: Podcast)
Based on this week’s shocking leak of a draft Supreme Court ruling overturning the Roe decision, IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Senior Research Fellow Bartlett Cleland avoid discussing the morality of abortion but instead explain how Roe precluded any development of consensus on abortion policy and drove both sides to their corners to become more extreme. Now, if Roe is overturned, an overdue policy discussion that has been frozen for 50 years can finally take place through consensus and legislation.
IPI Policy Basics: The Impact of Inflation on Your Taxes (Audio: Podcast)
IPI President Tom Giovanetti and Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews explain why inflation can result in taxes paid on false gains because capital gains tax rates and other taxes on assets are not indexed for inflation, and that income tax brackets in many states are also not indexed for inflation.
Total Records: 433
