Friday, May 22, 2026

Today, Kevin Warsh officially becomes the chair of the Federal Reserve. Zachary Shore offers a voting system solution to overcome the impact of gerrymandering. And Lanhee Chen and Brian Miller suggest solutions to lower the cost of drugs for ordinary Americans.

The Fed

Key Moments from Warsh’s Swearing-In Ceremony

Former Hoover fellow Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the 17th chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at the White House on Friday morning. He told attendees he would act with “energy and purpose, just the way Chairman (Alan) Greenspan did.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice was at the ceremony, alongside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and former Vice President Dan Quayle. For his part, President Donald Trump said he wants Warsh to be “totally independent.” Watch or Listen here. [Subscription required.]

Revitalizing American Institutions

Outwit the Gerrymander

On his Substack Wiser Way, National Security Visiting Fellow Zachary Shore offers a novel voting system he argues could nullify the negative impact of gerrymandering. Called “cumulative voting,” under this arrangement each voter casts a vote for every candidate of whom they approve and could “cast multiple votes for the same candidate, though within a fixed limit.” Shore says this system could help push back against the impact of gerrymandering underway in some states. “Instead of each minority voter casting one vote for the minority candidate, every minority voter could decide to cast all five of their approval votes for that one minority candidate,” Shore wrote. “This would make that minority candidate flush with votes and likely to win a seat on the board.” Read more here.

Healthcare

Enhancing Prescription Drug Affordability Through Competition

For the Journal of American Medicine Forum, fellows Lanhee J. Chen and Brian Miller write of the urgent need for measures to lower the cost of drugs for ordinary Americans. They offer two suggestions. First, the US needs a formal pathway to make certain low-risk drugs obtain “behind the counter status,” where they do not need a prescription, only the recommendation of a pharmacist based on a customer’s symptoms. Similar programs already exist in Canada, Australia, and the UK. Second, they say the Food and Drug Administration must speed up the process by which biosimilar drugs are evaluated and approved to enter the marketplace. Chen and Miller say these measures could go a long way toward helping the estimated 40 percent of Americans who report regular difficulty affording their medication. Read more here.

California

California Update: AI to the (Fiscal) Rescue; Spencer for Hire in LA?

The latest episode of Matters of Policy & Politics shows how California’s revised state budget for the new fiscal year, beginning in July, comes with a plot twist—a deficit that’s no more, courtesy of an unexpected capital-gains-tax windfall. But is the same entity that showered Sacramento with billions in tax revenue—California’s vibrant AI sector—also a source of long-term economic and policy concerns (tech-related job losses; competition with farmers for water and electricity)? And how do AI and the jittery state of California’s finances factor into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presidential ambitions? Meanwhile, as the Golden State’s June 2 primary approaches, is it time to take reality-TV “villain” and Palisades Fire victim Spencer Pratt seriously as he gains ground in Los Angeles’s contentious mayoral race? Watch or Listen here.

Revitalizing History

Cold War II and the Rise of Anti-History

On the latest episode of the School of War Podcast with Aaron MacLean, Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson speaks about the significant moment the world finds itself in, and how mistakes and misinterpretations of recent history could make the situation worse. Ferguson speaks about how the “short war illusion” persists today, how anti-historical pseudoscholarship threatens our understanding of the world, and what is really influencing Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy and his handling of the Iran war. Watch or Listen here.