Past episodes
About Uncommon Knowledge

For more than a decade the Hoover Institution has been producing Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, a series hosted by Hoover fellow Peter Robinson as an outlet for political leaders, scholars, journalists, and today’s big thinkers to share their views with the world. Guests have included a host of famous figures, including Paul Ryan, Henry Kissinger, Antonin Scalia, Rupert Murdoch, Newt Gingrich, and Christopher Hitchens, along with Hoover fellows such as Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz.

Uncommon Knowledge takes fascinating, accomplished guests, then sits them down with me to talk about the issues of the day,” says Robinson, an author and former speechwriter for President Reagan. “Unhurried, civil, thoughtful, and informed conversation– that’s what we produce. And there isn’t all that much of it around these days.”

The show started life as a television series in 1997 and is now distributed exclusively on the web over a growing network of the largest political websites and channels. To stay tuned for the latest updates on and episodes related to Uncommon Knowledge, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

January 5, 2009 | Recorded on December 15, 2008

Crisis Management with John Taylor

Crisis Management with John Taylor

What are the lessons we learned -- and perhaps unlearned -- that permitted the American economy, once so convulsive, to grow in such a robust and sustained way for the last quarter of a century? Economist John Taylor discusses today’s financial crisis, which he labels the most “unusual” crisis since the Great Depression. He identifies a number of factors contributing to the crisis, but locates its origins in the monetary excesses of the Fed. In outlining what the government should and should not do in response to the crisis, he concludes that it will be tragic if we forget all we have learned over the past two and a half decades about the importance of the private sector and the free market. (36:20) Video transcript