California is in the fourth year of record-setting dearth of rain, with virtually the entire state experiencing “exceptional drought.” In response, Governor Jerry Brown has mandated a 25 percent reduction in the state’s water use. Nowhere to be found are increases in water prices to induce conservation.
In the area of global warming, it's hard to find a civil discussion between two experts who disagree. This is one. Partly, I think, it's because Russ does a good job of being even-handed and drawing out the facts and conjectures. But probably more important is that both Christy and Emmanuel are reasonable people.
You can’t blame Californians for being somewhat jaded, if not downright disinterested in statewide elections. Just look at the numbers. Jerry Brown won last year’s gubernatorial contest by 20 points without working up a sweat (or bothering to run ads). The average spread in the last five presidential years is 17 points, ranging from a 24-point Obama win in 2008 to a 10-point George W. Bush loss in 2004.
The problem with George Stephanopoulos’s Clinton-gate mess is that his own words prove him to be both a bully and a hypocrite, as well as abjectly unethical.
Jeb Bush tangled himself up recently when he tried to answer a dumb question on the intelligence failures about Iraq’s WMDs and their role in going to war with Saddam Hussein in 2003. I’m not interested in the media’s usual pointless chatter about the incident. More troubling is the continuing dumbing down of the context and circumstances that surrounded the decision to go to war.
First, in any analysis of a new technology, you need to look at the benefits as well as the costs. Think of the diseases that genetic engineering might be able to reduce or even eliminate. I have a friend with a severely autistic 10-year-old child. Taking care of that child is stressing his marriage every single day. What if genetic engineering had been able to prevent autism? I don't know if it can. But it might. Isn't this a benefit?
2015 will carry special significance throughout much of the country — including New Jersey— as schools complete the transition to the Common Core standards. This spring, students statewide are taking the PARCC test, a next-generation exam aligned to the new, tougher standards. This marks a critical milestone not just for the Common Core but, more importantly, for the decades-long journey to improve America's schools.
Webinar hosted by the MIT Climate CoLab's carbon price contest
The webinar is free and open to the public, and provides an opportunity to learn about the current challenges and opportunities in successfully implementing a price on carbon in the United States.
This conference aims to consider central bank reforms relating to governance, oversight, and effectiveness. Since the Hoover conference “Frameworks for Central Banking in the Next Century,” held in May 2014, debates about central bank policy have intensified. This second conference will be in a round-table format, with short opening presentations, a lead discussant, and general discussion.
Hoover fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses George Stephanopoulos’s contributions to the Clinton Foundation while attacking Peter Schweizer for exposing the pay-for-play Clinton culture. Clinton-gate mess is that his own words prove him to be both a bully and a hypocrite, as well as abjectly unethical. If Stephanopoulos were to grill Stephanopoulos, he would surely ask why the donations started then and why they went to the Clintons, given that the dates roughly coincide to when Hillary was transitioning out of the State Department and readying her run for the presidency.
Hoover fellow Larry Diamond discusses his Atlantic piece, “Ending the Presidential-Debate Duopoly,” Diamond notes that including a third-party candidate would reinvigorate American democracy.
Did an 800-year old piece of parchment really change the world? Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the Magna Carta, the founding document of English law and liberty. The Magna Carta was repudiated just ten weeks after King John issued it. Yet, its impact is still with us today. In this conversation, Vincent explains what led to the Magna Carta and how its influence remains with us today in England and elsewhere.
"The complete withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 was one of the worst diplomatic mistakes in the last decade. Anybody who knew Iraq knew that the Iraqi Army in 2011 was not going to be able to take care of itself. It’s a tragedy that was preventable. We created a vacuum and ISIS was born.” Said Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute.
To a great extent, the frustrations are to be expected, analysts say. “A year out, everybody is always disappointed from any revolutionary upheaval, that’s a statement of social science law,” said Michael A. McFaul, a Stanford University professor and former American ambassador to Russia who is an expert on revolutions and visited Kiev last month.
In 2007, Nobel-winning economist Thomas Sargent provided graduates from the University of California at Berkeley an eight-point rundown of the lessons provided by his profession. Remember: Lists are great for a number of reasons.
"Politicians sometimes find themselves in strange positions when the lines of battle shift -- and clearly this is one of those times," said Bill Whalen, a veteran GOP strategist who is now a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
Numerous initiatives over the past few months are attempting to bridge the gap. At Stanford University, a group of students and researchers is currently working to create “Hacking for Defense.” Teams of technology superstars are partnered with members and veterans of the military to brainstorm ideas, plans, and projects on a 24 or 48 hour timeline. Joe Felter, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and partner at BMNT Partners is one of the project leaders.
Alice Lyman Miller, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, shared her experience of transitioning to female after more than five decades living as a man. By being patient and tolerant of others' views herself, she found acceptance and support everywhere she looked. "It's never too late to be who you are," Miller said. "I hope to offer a concrete example by being open about who I am. I hope to make people more accepting and change the world I'm in.
"This has become a Christmas tree of spending," said Bill Whalen, a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution who was a speechwriter for former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. "It's like modern art. You can look at it and interpret it any way you want."
Last week, the US became chair of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum for the eight Arctic nations and observer nations as distant from the Arctic as India and Singapore. Most Americans think of Alaska when they think about the Arctic but do not fully appreciate how important the Arctic is to our nation's future. For many decades, the Arctic was primarily a frozen haven for indigenous peoples, polar bears, seals and submarines. But as the Arctic warms at a rate twice that of the rest of the planet, it is becoming more and more accessible to human activity — and that will affect the world's geopolitics and its climate. A region where most assets had been frozen is rapidly become a dash for resources, access and influence.
