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hoover digest

Hoover Digest 1999 No. 1

January 30, 1999

The Loneliness of the “Black Conservative”

Hoover fellow Shelby Steele on the price of his convictions.

January 30, 1999

How Black Leaders Are Leading Black Americans Astray

Black leaders are less interested in leading black Americans than in “extracting what they can from white people.” An essay by Hoover fellow Thomas Sowell.

January 30, 1999

The Dance of the Lemons

Why is the quality of teachers so low? Just try getting rid of a bad one. Hoover media fellow Peter Schweizer explains.

January 30, 1999

A Little School in the Northeast Kingdom

Some worry that school vouchers amount to a risky new experiment. They ought to consider Vermont’s St. Johnsbury Academy. Its voucher program has worked just fine . . . for more than 100 years. By Hoover media fellow Amity Shlaes.

January 30, 1999

Axing the Family Tree

The welfare state weakens the family in more ways than you might realize. By Hoover fellow Jennifer Roback Morse.

January 30, 1999

How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims

When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they established a system of communal property. Within three years they had scrapped it, instituting private property instead. Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell tells the story.

January 30, 1999

Quantifying the Brave New World

Plant, equipment, inventory—traditional accounting methods can cope with these. But intellectual capital? That poses a problem. Michael S. Malone explains the need for accounting techniques as new as the information age itself.

January 30, 1999

The Welcome Effects of Latino Immigration

Since minorities can’t rely on the market to provide jobs and safe neighborhoods, the 1968 Kerner Report suggested, they need something like socialism instead. In the thirty years since, Latino immigrants have proved otherwise. By Hoover media fellow Michael Barone.

January 30, 1999

It’s All in Your Head

Economists used to believe that economic growth arose from sudden, dramatic breakthroughs—the steam engine in the eighteenth century, the transistor in our own. Yet according to Hoover fellow Paul M. Romer, “this account gets things exactly backward.” The founder of New Growth Theory explains himself.

January 30, 1999

Merger Mania?

The recent wave of mergers has stifled competition—or so conventional wisdom would suggest. Hoover media fellow Peter Brimelow argues that the mergers may have fueled economic growth instead.

January 30, 1999

Why the Antitrust Cops Should Lay Off High Tech

Federal intervention in the computer industry is unwarranted and counterproductive. How not to mince words, by Hoover fellow Robert J. Barro.

January 30, 1999

You Call That a Case?

How weak is the case against Microsoft? Even a Netscape lobbyist considers it wobbly. Hoover fellow David R. Henderson reports.

January 30, 1999

Sick Process

Who would have thought that American bureaucrats could learn about efficiency from . . . European bureaucrats? Hoover fellow Henry I. Miller explains why the Food and Drug Administration should imitate its counterpart in London.

January 30, 1999

Big Brother Is Listening

The FBI and the Department of Justice are proposing tight controls on the production and sale of encryption software. Hoover fellow Joseph D. McNamara argues that the proposals would allow unprecedented government intrusion into our lives, weaken the economy—and actually increase crime.

January 30, 1999

Five Ways to Beat the Thugs

Hoover fellow Abraham D. Sofaer on steps we must take to counter the terrorist threat.

January 30, 1999

What the European Central Bank Needs to Do

As the European Central Bank begins making decisions, Hoover fellow John B. Taylor asserts, “a clear guideline, or policy rule, would go a long way toward . . . increasing economic stability throughout the globe.” Taylor modestly suggests . . . the Taylor Rule.

January 30, 1999

Britain’s Final Choice

With polls showing that the British public still harbors reservations about membership in the European Union, Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman makes a suggestion. Why doesn’t Britain simply drop out of the European Union, joining the North American Free Trade Agreement instead?

January 30, 1999

A Tale of Two Nations

Not long ago, Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Gary S. Becker visited two former Soviet states. Georgia, where free market reforms have been instituted, is doing very well. Uzbekistan is another story.

January 30, 1999

Why We Must Act

With Russia once again on the brink of collapse, the United States must do all it can to prop the country up. Hoover fellow Michael McFaul explains why.

January 30, 1999

How Russia Blundered into Chechnya

When the Russians invaded the tiny province of Chechnya in 1994, they expected to achieve a swift victory. Instead they found themselves fought to a bloody stalemate. Hoover fellow John B. Dunlop on the way ignorance and arrogance led to a tragic miscalculation.

January 30, 1999

Why China Will Become a Democracy

China? A democracy? According to Hoover fellow Henry S. Rowen, the question is not whether, but when.

January 30, 1999

Two Freedoms

Beijing is attempting to establish economic freedom while stifling political freedom. Can it have the one without the other? Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman has his doubts.

January 30, 1999

New Thoughts about Fidel

Three former secretaries of state, including Hoover fellow George P. Shultz, recently called for a commission to rethink American policy toward Cuba. Hoover fellow William Ratliff greets the idea with three cheers—and a first order of business: lifting the embargo.

January 30, 1999

The Nineteen Sixties: A Long, Strange Trip

What kind of revolutionaries spend their adult lives seeking to undo the revolution they made as children? Hoover media fellow Christopher Caldwell revisits a decade.

January 30, 1999

Richard Nixon, LBJ, and the Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Three decades ago, the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia—and Lyndon Johnson placed a telephone call to Richard Nixon. By Hoover fellow Richard V. Allen.

January 30, 1999

Still the Father of His Country

Although we tend to think of him as a stiff, remote, and inaccessible figure, George Washington is nevertheless “the most important figure in American history.” By Hoover fellow Seymour Martin Lipset.

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January 30, 1999

Mr. Market

Nobel laureate and Hoover fellow Milton Friedman evaluates Alan Greenspan’s job performance, analyzes the role of the International Monetary Fund in the Asian financial meltdown, and explains how to fix Social Security—all in less than three thousand words.

January 30, 1999

Treasures from the Archives

The Hoover Institution Archives contains more than fifty million items. Herewith Hoover Institution director John Raisian on one of his favorites.

January 30, 1999

A Fierce, Freedom-Loving Man

A founder of the Communist Party of the United States, Jay Lovestone broke with the Soviets—he opposed Stalin to his face—then broke with Marxism itself. Joining the American labor movement, working closely with the CIA, he fought communism for the rest of his life. Hoover archivist Elena Danielson describes Lovestone and his papers.

January 30, 1999

Two Eras

The Hoover Archives has recently acquired important new materials that document both the history of communism and the difficult transitions to democracy that took place in Russia, Latin America, and elsewhere once the Cold War was finally over. Hoover deputy director Charles Palm reports.

January 30, 1999

A comprehensive listing

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