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Hoover Digest 1998 No. 2

April 30, 1998

The Ten Causes of the Reagan Boom

With the exception of a brief lull at the beginning of the 1990s, the American economy has spent the last fifteen years undergoing dramatic growth. Hoover fellow Martin Anderson knows why.

April 30, 1998

How Fares the American Worker?

Conventional wisdom says real income for American workers has stagnated or even fallen. Hoover fellow David R. Henderson says think again.

April 30, 1998

Free Trade Helps, Not Hurts, Social Programs

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Opponents argued that the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, would start a "race to the bottom," forcing the United States to lower its environmental standards to equal those in Mexico and forcing Canada to lower its welfare payments to equal those in the United States. Four years later, Hoover fellow Melvyn Krauss notes that neither race ever got started.

April 30, 1998

Campaign Finance: A Reform to End All Reforms

Reformers such as Senators McCain and Feingold want to impose new limits on the amounts of money political campaigns are allowed to raise and spend. Hoover fellow Annelise Anderson agrees that the current system is a mess—but she proposes precisely the opposite solution.

April 30, 1998

Why One Plus One Equals Billions

The education lobby argues that, if we flood public schools with money, the performance of our students will improve. Will it? Hoover media fellow Peter Brimelow looks at the evidence—and discovers that the educators have their math wrong.

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April 30, 1998

The Covenant Marriage

When people say "I do," how can we ensure that they will? Hoover media fellow Christopher Caldwell examines an effort by the state of Louisiana to shore up the institution of marriage.

April 30, 1998

Do You Swear to Love, Honor, and Cherish? Then Sign Here

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There would be little need for divorce law if we made use of compulsory marriage contracts. A proposal by Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Gary S. Becker.

April 30, 1998

It's Time to End the War on Drugs

When President Nixon announced a war on drugs in 1972, Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Milton Friedman attacked the program as immoral and counterproductive. Twenty-five years later, Friedman is more convinced than ever.

April 30, 1998

If You Smoke, Florida Wants to Tax You

The recent settlement between Florida and the tobacco companies amounts to an excise tax on smokers in all fifty states. Anyone for taxation without representation? By Hoover national fellow Daniel P. Kessler and former Hoover national fellow Jeremy Bulow.

April 30, 1998

Medicare Is Bad for Your Health

Hoover fellow Philip R. Alper explains how Medicare's convoluted regulations put the nation's health care system at risk.

April 30, 1998

The Case against Immigration as We Know It

The 1965 Immigration Act changed who is allowed to come to America. It also changed America. By Hoover media fellow Peter Brimelow.

April 30, 1998

Send Me Your Skilled, Your Trained, Your Electrical Engineers . . .

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Ever heard of an H-1B visa? You would have if you worked in high tech. Hoover fellow Nicholas Imparato joins Joseph B. Costello and Lance Director Nagel in arguing that the computer industry needs immigrants—lots of them.

April 30, 1998

Who Says the Globe Is Warming?

Hoover fellow Thomas Sowell notes that the central assumption on which the entire debate over global warming is based—that the globe is growing warmer as a result of human activity—is utterly unproved.

April 30, 1998

Report from Kyoto

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When Hoover fellow Thomas Gale Moore flew to Kyoto, Japan, last winter for the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, he took along a healthy dose of skepticism about environmental activists. He also took along his sense of humor.

April 30, 1998

Let Microsoft Compete

The antitrust division of the Department of Justice consists of a few thousand lawyer s. The market for computer software consists of tens of millions of consumers. Which do you think is better equipped to discipline Microsoft? Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Gary S. Becker on why the feds should back off.

April 30, 1998

Kinder, Gentler Recessions

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The high-tech revolution is giving us a permanently higher rate of economic growth while muting business downturns. Hoover fellow David R. Henderson on why even the bad economic news isn't as bad as it used to be.

April 30, 1998

March of the Troglodytes

Scientific illiterates are attempting to bury biotechnology. By Hoover fellow Henry I. Miller.

April 30, 1998

NATO's Next Mission

NATO achieved its first mission—preventing attack from the communist East. Now it must take up its larger mission—ensuring a stable and secure demo-cratic Europe. By Hoover fellow and former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

April 30, 1998

Who Needs the IMF?

The International Monetary Fund has pledged to help bail out the economies of Southeast Asia—thereby making matters worse. Why the IMF is "ineffective, unnecessary, and obsolete." By Hoover fellow, former U.S. secretary of state, and former U.S. secretary of the treasury George P. Shultz; Hoover overseer and former U.S. secretary of the treasury William E. Simon; and former Citicorp chairman Walter B. Wriston.

April 30, 1998

Reviving Japan

Japanese Monetary Policy in the Driver's Seat

Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Milton Friedman gives the Bank of Japan step-by-step instructions for resuscitating the Japanese economy. A monetary kiss of life.

April 30, 1998

How the Tigers Lost Their Tale

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The tale of Southeast Asia has been one of unremitting economic success—until now. Hoover fellow and former Chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers Michael J. Boskin on what went wrong and what it means for the United States.

April 30, 1998

What Caused the Crash?

Those who championed the so-called Asian development model thought bureaucrats could make better economic decisions than the marketplace. They were . . . mistaken. Hoover fellow Charles Wolf Jr. explains what went wrong and how to fix it.

April 30, 1998

The Problem of Chinese Nationalism

Its economy thriving, its military growing, will China embark on an expansionist foreign policy? Hoover fellows Thomas A. Metzger and Ramon H. Myers argue that the Chinese are far too realistic for that—and have been for more than a thousand years.

April 30, 1998

The China Syndrome

Despite China's stunning economic transformation, American critics still attack Beijing for denying its people democratic rights. Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell says calm down. Democracy is more a response to prosperity than a cause of it.

April 30, 1998

The Myth of a Russian Dictatorship

Western analysts portray the Russian government as a virtual dictatorship. Hoover fellow Michael A. McFaul dissents. It would be an odd dictatorship, he argues, that found itself thwarted by a legislature or pushed around by a free press.

April 30, 1998

A Tale of Two Generations

Despite almost half a century of peace, prosperity, and democracy—and despite the reunification of Germany itself—older Germans are gloomy about the nation's future. Younger Germans aren't. By Hoover fellow Dennis L. Bark.

April 30, 1998

Whose Country Is It?

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The divide between secular and religious Israelis, Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell reports, is profound—and growing.

April 30, 1998

Il Papa and El Jefe

In one of the more astonishing encounters of the post–Cold War era, the unrepentantly communist Fidel Castro invited the immovably anticommunist John Paul II to Cuba. Did the pope's visit have any effect? Hoover fellow William Ratliff offers an assessment.

April 30, 1998

Inside Stalin's Darkroom

Soviet premier Vyacheslav Molotov and Uzbek party leaders

Hoover fellow Robert Conquest reviews a new book, The Commissar Vanishes, that documents Soviet doctoring of photographs, paintings, and even sculpture. How the Communists cropped history.

April 30, 1998

Planning Pearl Harbor

Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku

Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku opposed war with the United States, but once the decision was made, he did his duty, laying meticulous plans for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hoover fellow Mark R. Peattie joins David C. Evans in describing how Yamamoto achieved a brilliant tactical success—only to set in train the events that would lead to Japanese defeat.

April 30, 1998

Milton Friedman, Soothsayer

Boom? Bust? Inflation? Deflation? Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Milton Friedman peers into the future, making predictions on price levels in the United States, stagnation in Japan, and the new currency in Europe. A freewheeling discussion with Hoover media fellow Peter Brimelow.

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April 30, 1998

Free Market Environmentalism Explained

Terry L. Anderson

Hoover fellow Terry L. Anderson describes the movement he founded. An interview with Candice Jackson Mayhugh of the Stanford Review.

April 30, 1998

The X Files

Kellyanne Fitzpatrick

The members of Generation X—Americans born between 1965 and 1978—now account for a quarter of the population. In this interview with Kevin Harrington of the Stanford Review, pollster, pundit, and Hoover media fellow Kellyanne Fitzpatrick tells how Gen-Xers are changing American politics.

April 30, 1998

The Man Who Made Evita Famous

Evita Calendar

While his wife sang "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" (well, at least she sang it in the movie), Juan Perón ran the country, becoming one of the most important figures in the history of Latin America. Where is the best collection of materials on Perón? (Hint: It's not Buenos Aires.) Hoover fellow William Ratliff, the curator of the Americas Collection, provides a tour of one of Hoover's most fascinating holdings.

April 30, 1998

The Unknown Opposition to Soviet Rule

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New documents prove that, even after Stalin's purges, famines, and show trials, the internal opposition to Soviet rule never ended. By Archivist Gordon M. Hahn.

April 30, 1998

A comprehensive listing

A comprehensive listing of recent writings of Hoover fellows and publications from the Hoover Press.

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