Hacker News Reader

But we're talking about a think tank, right? It's a private group of people that write about their opinions. Why shouldn't they have conflicts of interest?

Or you can limit the percentage of funds you can get from certain types of entities in order to reduce or prevent dependence. My current employer (a research no profit) has this limitation in its basic rules

Afaik, us senators can't. Their campaigns can.

A second question then: how do you define a conflict of interest?

Those prohibitions are in place. I think you are confused...