Stanford University will begin its annual two-week winter closure today, December 19. The next edition of the Hoover Daily Report will be published on Monday, January 5, 2026. The Hoover Institution wishes you a happy holiday season.
This Friday, psychologist William Damon shares findings on how to lead a more purposeful life; Lanhee Chen calls on lawmakers to increase competition in the healthcare sector to improve choice and affordability; and David Henderson argues that a prohibition approach to drug policy is counterproductive, as it increases the harms it seeks to mitigate.
The Pursuit of Happiness
Before long, holiday celebrations, family gatherings, and gift-sharing will give way to a new year and the question of resolutions and crafting a better self. For a special episode of Matters of Policy & Politics, William Damon, a Hoover Institution Senior Fellow and Stanford University lifespan development psychologist, joins Distinguished Policy Fellow Bill Whalen to discuss his decades-long research into the quest for purposefulness in life. Damon tells Whalen that finding purpose relies not so much on self-improvement as on being a positive contributor to the common good. Damon offers practical, research-backed tips for the realization of purpose and integrity in work, creativity, family, and other relationships. Watch or listen here.
Healthcare Policy
“Republicans are right to offer their own reform alternative to Democrats’ misguided effort to extend ObamaCare’s Covid-era enhanced subsidies,” argues Research Fellow Lanhee J. Chen in an Opinion letter at The Wall Street Journal. “But their plan won’t completely address the affordability crisis unless it includes policies that expand the supply of providers and services,” he says. Chen argues that “policymakers should . . . tackle the ways in which some health providers limit patient access to care,” such as state-level “scope-of-practice laws that prevent nurses and other health professionals from practicing to the top of their licenses.” While noting the political constraints on lawmakers seeking to modify the nation’s healthcare laws, Chen encourages them to “pursue reforms that enhance choices, improve affordability and return the focus to patients first.” Read more here. [Subscription required.]
Law & Economics
In a new essay for Defining Ideas, Research Fellow David R. Henderson argues that the severe penalties for selling, using, and possessing drugs damage Americans’ civil rights, while actually worsening the scourge of drug use itself. He compares the drug war to the mindset behind the prohibition of alcohol, which empowered organized crime, sparked widespread defiance of the law, and created many other social harms, including draconian enforcement and corruption. Perhaps surprisingly, he writes, drug wars also intensify the purity of illegal drugs and raise their prices. Henderson argues that targeting drug smugglers at sea is an unproductive tactic that can never reach the roots of the problem. Read more here.
Science and Technology
Hoover Science and Senior Fellow Drew Endy joined leaders from government, industry, charities, and academia in Washington, DC, for the public launch of the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus on December 2, 2025. Nearly 200 members of Congress, staffers, and biotechnology leaders convened for the event. Established earlier this year, the caucus already includes roughly 40 members from both parties. The mission of the caucus is to equip policymakers and staff with the knowledge and networks needed to ensure the United States leads responsibly and effectively in biotechnology. Endy celebrated the bipartisan nature of the caucus, noting that all-hands support for advancing biotechnology responsibly should be known as “bio-partisanship.” Read more here.
Economics and Finance
On the latest episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century, Policy Fellow Jon Hartley is joined by Matteo Maggiori, the Moghadam Family Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on international macroeconomics and finance, and he is also a cofounder and director of the Global Capital Allocation Project. Hartley and Maggiori discuss the latter’s career, in which he went from trading at JP Morgan to becoming an academic economist, as well as the rise of China’s economy, geoeconomics and sanctions power, measuring international economic data, exchange rates, and beliefs and portfolios. Watch or listen here.
Featured Research Initiative
The Hoover Institution Strategic Competence Initiative pursues research, teaching, policy recommendations, and programming to improve strategic competence, or our ability to integrate elements of national power and the efforts of like-minded partners to advance and protect America’s vital interests. Read more here.
Related Commentary