Matters of Policy & Politics

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.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: Cyber-Rattling: Jacquelyn Schneider on (War) Games People Play | Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

Forty years after the movie WarGames showed the threat of a computer-driven nuclear holocaust, war-gaming has come to prominence as a way to foreshadow – and possibly deter – future conflicts. Jacquelyn Schneider, a Hoover fellow and director of Hoover’s Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative, explains the fine art of quality war-gaming – and how the practice applies to current tensions between the US and China, and perhaps played a role in the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Matters Of Policy & Politics: California Update: Indulgent Dodgers, Indebted San Francisco | Bill Whalen, Lee Ohanian, and Jonathan Movroydis | Hoover Institution

San Francisco’s office values plummet as the city/county face a myriad of financial woes including a gaping budget shortfall and a public-transportation system approaching a “fiscal cliff.” 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 what policies San Francisco could implement to rejuvenate its business sector, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dust-up with a “progressive order of queer and trans nuns,” plus the left’s efforts to force a frail senator Dianne Feinstein into an early retirement.