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 Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s “California on Your Mind” web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including the addition of “disinformation” and ethnic studies classes (the latter now a graduation requirement) to California’s K-12 curriculum.

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 Hoover senior research fellow (courtesy of Friedman’s papers in Hoover’s archives)  in her new book, Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.

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 Hoover Institution press release he co-edited that features nearly three dozen defense and national security experts (many of them, Hoover fellows) outlining better ways to deliver “more bang for the buck” and recruit and retain needed personnel.

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, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to discuss the latest in the Golden State, including the governor’s use of the process to enhance his national image, his allergic reaction to a bill legalizing “magic mushrooms,” plus his re-embrace of the progressive dream of single-payer healthcare.

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 policy recommendations around supply chain security, US-China competition, and Taiwan’s future.

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 past 19 months of fighting.

The good news: inflation isn’t what it was a year ago. The bad news: Americans still pay more for shelter, food, and energy – and may hold lawmakers accountable for the high costs in the next election. Mickey Levy, a Hoover Institution visiting scholar and senior economist at Berenberg Capital Markets, discusses the root causes of higher inflation, a more recent phase of “disinflation,” the Federal Reserve clinging to the notion of “transitory” higher prices, plus the consequences (and questionable wisdom) of the federal government engaging in economic stimuli.

China’s challenges in developing its semiconductor industry despite massive government subsidies. Tiffert explains that factors like lack of talent, economic inefficiencies, corruption, and reliance on foreign firms have hampered China’s progress, but US export controls could unintentionally help China become self-sufficient over the long term. He explains the Silicon Triangle report’s recommendation of “friend-shoring” semiconductor production to trusted allies rather than trying to onshore it all to the US.

Matt Turpin discusses the intensifying competition between the US and China over dominance in the semiconductor industry. He discusses the strategies and policies the US is employing, such as export controls and domestic investment incentives, to try to maintain leadership in advanced semiconductors while limiting China’s progress.

As Sacramento’s bill-signing season commences, Republican infighting is coming to Southern California, and does “Cincinnatus” need to return to office? 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 in the Golden State, including pending “first-in-the-nation” laws, a fast-food backroom deal, Ronald Reagan’s lessons in governing California, what Lee Ohanian’s discovered in five years of analyzing California policy, plus former governor Jerry Brown – aka, Cincinnatus – awaiting “sensible people to rise to the occasion.”

To read “Implications of Technology Trends in the Semiconductor Industry” by H.S. Philip Wong and Jim Plummer, click the following link:
https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/SiliconTriangle_Chapter2_230828.pdf

To learn more, go to https://www.hoover.org/silicon-triangle

Does a repeat of the last presidential election take America into uncharted waters (an octogenarian incumbent vs. a predecessor on trial), or is it proof of Yogi Berra’s “déjà vu all over again” – as in 2016?

Will a small sliver of independent voters decide the fates of a controversy-plagued Donald Trump and a Democratic opponent with his own set of problems? David Brady and Douglas Rivers, Hoover Institution senior fellows and Stanford University political scientists, discuss President Biden’s and former President Trump’s poll numbers, the economy’s role in the election, plus how “independent” are non-aligned voters?

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.

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 90th birthday.

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 (that includes rising Medicaid costs as well as Medicare costs related to America’s growing elderly population).

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.

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.

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 4th of July on the West Coast, plus a Vanity Fair profile of a California overly obsessed with crime, homelessness, local nabobs, and trendy cuisine.

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.

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.