Matters of Policy & Politics

President Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to a departure in presidential politics – two general-election debates in late June (a historical first) and early September, with a lone vice presidential debate somewhere in between. Ben Ginsberg, the Hoover Institution’s Volker Family Visiting Fellow and a nationally recognized election-integrity advocate and campaign counsel, discusses the merits of the new debate schedule, what it m...

Did a preeminent California university handle campus protests the right way, and why can’t the state prove that its homeless programs are working? Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, discuss the latest news in the Golden State including third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. qualifying for California’s November ballot...

What happened to teamwork and the spirit of unity and common purpose – not just in sports, but in politics and in society? Former New Jersey senator and basketball legend Bill Bradley, the star of the one-man show Rolling Along, tells a tale that took him from a Missouri boyhood to a celebrated turn at Princeton, the bright lights of New York’s Madison Square Garden, and nearly 25 years in politics, followed by a post-political seg...

President Biden’s campaign swing through Pennsylvania this week is notable for two things – three days devoted to one “swing” state, and a nuanced message regarding the US economy that’s heavy on class-warfare rhetoric and light on inflationary concerns. Mickey Levy, a macroeconomist and Hoover Institution visiting fellow, explains the complicated picture of America’s economy – higher employment, higher productivity, and higher pri...

Evidence points to generations of Americans increasingly less informed as to their republic’s origins and system of checks and balances, so it is not surprising that more Americans are less engaged in their communities and are increasingly pessimistic about the future. Checker Finn, a Hoover Institution adjunct senior fellow and past chairman of Hoover’s K-12 Education, joins Hoover emeritus research fellow David Davenport, co-auth...

Recent economic news out of California isn’t all that “golden:” 400,000 jobs shed and the nation’s highest unemployment rate; and the Golden State soon to be demoted from fifth to six in terms of global economies. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, discuss why the West Coast economy has gone south (think: hostile business...

California’s Super Tuesday primary yielded a few surprises, including a low turnout that nearly doomed governor Newsom’s pet ballot measure and a San Francisco electorate moving rightward on local police tactics and welfare requirements. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, discuss election results, the controversy over Pan...

Unusual for a member of Congress, the 40-year-old Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher is retiring later this year after only four terms in the House of Representatives. In a wide-ranging interview, Gallagher discusses what brought him to Capitol Hill and why he’s decided to depart so relatively soon; life inside a fractious Republican caucus; his legacy as chair of a House select committee examining the threat of an ambitious Chinese Com...

California’s Proposition 1, a $6.38 billion bond addressing mental health treatment across the Golden State, seems destined for voter approval. Is it sound policy – and a sound expense for a state deeply in debt? Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest...

Four US Senate candidates gathered for the first televised debate in advance of California’s March 5 primary; the state’s alarming budget deficit exposes fundamental problems with spending and taxes; and what are the odds of Silicon Valley luminaries building a new city form scratch in the heart of rural Solano County? Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “Calif...

A new year begins with a familiar story – Middle East turmoil – and two plots twists of late: US forces striking Yemen’s Houthi rebels while trying to safeguard Red Sea maritime traffic; and Iran firing missiles in the directions of Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria, which tests western resolve. Joel Rayburn, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and member of Hoover’s Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group, and Bernard Haykel, a P...

On the eve of Iowa’s presidential caucuses and the start of the 2024 primary season, what’s the inevitability of a Biden-Trump rematch? David Brady and Douglas Rivers, Hoover Institution senior fellows and Stanford University political scientists, discuss various political dynamics heading into Iowa and beyond including whether there’s room for three viable Republican candidates in January’s and February’s contests, the number of p...

What did we learn in 2023? California governor Gavin Newsom’s forays into national politics may have hurt his popularity back home; San Francisco’s pre-summit emergency clean-up proved that urban sanitation, like fame, can be fleeting.

Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydi...

A tale of not two but three California cities: what some have suggested was a hypocritical sanitizing of San Francisco ahead of this week’s APEC summit; the question of who and what caused a fire closing a portion of a Los Angeles freeway for weeks ahead; and in Sacramento, the 20th anniversary of Arnold Schwarzenegger taking office as California’s 38th governor. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill...

Though arguably one of the most celebrated economists of the past century, there’s much to still be learned about the late Milton Friedman – his embrace of free markets and capitalism, his oft-times contrarian thinking on the likes of drug legalization, and the women who supported his research. Author Jennifer Burns, a Hoover Institution research fellow and Stanford University historian, discusses what she learned about the fabled ...

Add to an already uncertain world: America’s uncertain ability to adequately budget for its national and global security needs – those needs more apparent given the US’s current involvement in two “hot” wars, plus “Cold War 2.0" with China. Michael Boskin, the Hoover Institution’s Wohlford Family Senior Fellow and former chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, discusses Defense Budgeting for a Safer World – a new H...

In Sacramento, the State Capitol’s annual bill-signing season ends, with California governor Gavin Newsom deciding the fate of hundreds of pieces of legislation. Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, joins Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including the governor’s use...

Read "Scenarios for Future US-China Competition" here: https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/SiliconTriangle_Chapter1_230828.pdf

Mary Kay Magistad and Kharis Templeman discuss four potential futures for US-China relations. These scenarios depend on whether the global economy becomes more integrated or bifurcated, and whether the US or China leads in semiconductor technology. They also cover key findings and polic...

The Russia-Ukraine war is less about resources and more about empire, history, and two nations’ self-conceptions. Or so contends Norman Naimark, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and Stanford University history professor, who discusses how past and present cruelties involving the two combatants – common heritage, absorption, suppression and genocide, Vladimir Putin’s mindset, and the Ukrainian people’s resilience – factor into the...