Matters of Policy & Politics

Silicon Triangle: Chris Ford on How the US Can Reduce Vulnerabilities in Semiconductor Supply Chains | Hoover Institution

Chris Ford discusses the need for an insurance policy to mitigate vulnerabilities in American semiconductor supply chains through government incentives, private sector investment, workforce development, and strategic stockpiling.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Silicon Triangle: Semiconductors and Seminal Moments Across the Pacific | Bill Whalen, James Ellis, and Glenn Tiffert | Hoover Institution

Can America re-create a vibrant domestic semiconductor industry and, if so, what does that portend for an already strategically-vulnerable Taiwan? Glenn Tiffert, a Hoover Institution distinguished research fellow and co-chair of Hoover’s Project on China’s Global Sharp Power, and Retired Admiral James Ellis, Hoover’s Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow and a carrier battle group commander during 1996’s “Third Taiwan Strait Crisis”, discuss Silicon Triangle: The United States, Taiwan, China and Global Semiconductor Security – a joint Hoover Institution report examining the Pacific Rim’s geopolitics.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: California Update: Riders on the Storm | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

California’s first tropical storm in over eight decades exposes both physical and emotional frailties; the Golden State’s governor continues his shadow presidential campaign; and not a living Californian merits state “hall of fame” recognition. 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 writer Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including a second political giant of late to celebrate a 90^th birthday.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Healthcare Reform: In Need of Resuscitation | Bill Whalen and Lanhee Chen | Hoover Institution

Noticeably absent from both the floors of Congress and the presidential campaign trail: innovative ideas for lowering healthcare costs, easing the system’s regulatory burdens, and offering patients greater freedom to design their own plans. Lanhee Chen, Hoover’s David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies, discusses Hoover’s Choices for All project to revamp America’s healthcare system and he reflects on various health-related entitlement challenges that will soon overwhelm state and local governments (including rising Medicaid costs as well as Medicare costs related to America’s growing elderly population).

Matters Of Policy & Politics: The Summer of Barbie…and Curricular Backlashes | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

With Hollywood at a standstill thanks to screenwriters and actors on strike, what to say about two summer blockbusters – Barbie and Oppenheimer – as California metaphors? 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 writer Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the economics and politics of the Hollywood strike, California’s K-12 math and social-science curriculum changes under fire, plus a nascent field of Democrats hoping to be California’s next governor – including an eerie parallel between vice president Kamala Harris and Richard Nixon.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Supreme Court Fireworks: The Future of College Admissions | Bill Whalen and John Yoo | Hoover Institution

For a second straight summer, the Supreme Court issues a series of rulings that impact the nation’s social and political fabrics. John Yoo, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and author of the newly released The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, explains the justices’ reasoning on race and free speech, what the future holds for college admissions (Harvard’s legacy factor now the subject of a lawsuit), plus the unusually personal nature of a few of the opinions.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: California Update: The Beautiful People Republic | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

Florida’s governor comes to San Francisco and uses the city’s decay as fodder for a presidential campaign ad, while improvement and innovation in California’s K-12 schools remains elusive thanks to the state’s political dynamics. 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 writer Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including the summer’s first heat wave, the oddities of 4^th of July on the West Coast, plus a Vanity Fair profile of a California overly obsessed with crime, homelessness, local nabobs, and trendy cuisine.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Third Time’s More Charming: Macke Raymond on Charter School Progress | Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

A recent data study on America’s charter schools – the third in an ongoing series – shows students with average learning gains of six days in math and 16 days in reading for the academic years 2015-2019. Macke Raymond, a Hoover Institution Distinguished Research Fellow and founder and director of Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, which authored the study, discusses lessons learned and the status of the three-decade charter school movement, the push for better performing traditional public schools, and a growing national conversation on classroom outcomes.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Levant Update: Tony Soprano Survives . . . in Syria | Bill Whalen and Joel Rayburn | Hoover Institution

Arguably the world’s most troubled region, the Levant continues to produce geopolitical obstacles and conundrums. Joel Rayburn, a Hoover visiting fellow and former US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Levant Affairs explains how Bashar al-Assad (the Levant’s “Tony Soprano”) survived a civil war and sanctions, the Arab League readmitting Syria, the significance of regional lands conducting their own diplomacy without direct US involvement, the role of a fragile regime in Iran, plus the long shadows of Russia and China.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Hacks, Attacks, and Pushing Back: Herb Lin on Cybersecurity | Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

A cyberattack on a European banking institution, the handiwork of a pro-Russian “hacktivist” collective, may be a preview of the next chapter in the war in Ukraine. Herb Lin, the Hoover Institution’s Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security, discusses possible motives behind the attack, various nations’ cyber-strategies – China in search of data, North Korea in need of cash – and the push and pull between the US government and the nation’s commercial and tech sectors over taking responsibility for future attacks.