This Friday, the Hoover Institution invites you to participate in the Thomas Sowell Essay Contest and Creator Competition, before both opportunities close on September 15th; Peter Robinson interviews demographer Nicholas Eberstadt on global trends in population and their implications for humanity’s future; and a new video from Hoover’s Tennenbaum Program for Fact-Based Policy examines recent changes to the Medicaid program, as well as ongoing debates over the program’s structure.
Hoover Institution Opportunity
Entries to the Hoover Institution’s Thomas Sowell Essay Contest and Creator Competition are due by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on September 15, 2025! In the Essay Contest, tell us how Thomas Sowell has changed your life, or apply your passion for Sowell’s ideas to an important current issue in public policy or culture. Or, in the Creator Competition, use your creativity and skill to show us an essential lesson from Thomas Sowell that Americans need to remember today.
Senior Fellow Thomas Sowell is a cultural icon and an intellectual inspiration for generations of Americans. To celebrate the immense contributions of this legendary scholar, we invite you to take up the challenge of either the Essay Contest (for enrolled high school and college students only) or the Creator Competition (open to all). Both contests feature a first-place prize of $5,000, along with an expenses-paid trip to an upcoming celebration of Thomas Sowell at the Hoover Institution.
Learn more about both opportunities and how to enter here.
Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
Is humanity running out of people? For the latest episode of Uncommon Knowledge, demographer and American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt joins Distinguished Policy Fellow Peter M. Robinson to explain why birthrates are collapsing across the globe—from China and Japan to Europe and the United States—and what this means for the future of prosperity, freedom, and global power. Can immigration save America? Will Africa remain the great exception when it comes to population growth? And is there any way to reverse the “baby bust” through public policy? The conversation delves into all these topics and more. Watch or listen here.
Is Medicaid being cut? A new short video from Hoover’s Tennenbaum Program for Fact-Based Policy explains how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act only slowed Medicaid’s rate of growth by introducing work requirements, tighter eligibility rules, and restrictions on state funding strategies. These changes place projected program spending at $860.5 billion by 2034, down from around $985.7 billion. Despite these measures, Medicaid will still see over 30 percent cumulative growth this decade. Supporters view recent program changes as fiscal prudence, while critics fear they may limit Medicaid’s ability to serve millions effectively. Watch the video to see what the stakes are and where you come down on Medicaid reforms. Watch here
Against the popular view that raising the minimum wage decreases racial disparities in earnings, Visiting Fellow David Neumark argues in The Hill that precisely the opposite is true. Neumark says that new research he has coauthored shows that “higher minimum wages reduce job opportunities for blacks and increase racial disparities.” As he explains, “Jyotsana Kala and I find that higher minimum wages reduce black employment and earnings while having little impact on whites. Thus, they actually increase race disparities.” Neumark suggests that a key public policy implication of this work is that those seeking to advance workers’ interests should not do so through advocating a higher minimum wage. Read more here.
International Affairs
In an op-ed column for Newsmax, Senior Fellow Emeritus Thomas Henriksen argues that in the wake of the August summit in Alaska between the US and the Russian Federation, it has become clear “that President Donald Trump and his allies face a prolonged confrontation with Moscow, no matter how the current conflict is resolved.” As Henriksen notes, “Russia displayed no signs of scaling down its Ukrainian war at the Anchorage meeting.” Given this adversarial posture, Henriksen argues that Washington must double down on a “conventional military and nuclear armaments buildup” and increase the nation’s missile defense capabilities. Evaluating Russian aggression in geopolitical context, Henriksen also says, “Russia and China—which have grown closer to each other against the United States over the past decade—pose heightened threats for the foreseeable future.” The piece makes the case that years, or even decades, of American “exertion” may be necessary to overcome this challenge. Read more here.
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