This Friday, Hoover celebrates renowned economist John B. Taylor with a new book examining his impactful and multifaceted career; Joshua Rauh speaks with House members about the urgency of improving America’s fiscal situation; and a new book by Rose Gottemoeller pushes back on revisionist narratives to remind readers that following the Cold War, the United States and Russia successfully collaborated on a number of important security issues.
Celebrating John B. Taylor
Few have had an impact on the world of economics and monetary policy equal to that of John B. Taylor. A professor of economics at Stanford University and a Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Emeritus, Taylor has made influential contributions in monetary policy, public service, and academia across five decades. A Celebration Honoring John B. Taylor’s Contributions to Economics and Monetary Policy is based on a conference held May 8, 2025, at the Hoover Institution to honor Taylor’s life and career. Many of Taylor’s colleagues and students past and present, other monetary experts, and family and friends came together to pay tribute and share insightful anecdotes of his character and dedication. Reflecting the conference proceedings, this volume shares the presentations and vivid discussions around Taylor’s role as a leading economist, from his development of the influential Taylor rule—an important tool of monetary policy—to his laudable public service in the US Treasury and on the Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Ford, Carter, and George H. W. Bush.
Discover the impact Taylor has had across academia, government, and beyond.
Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
Yesterday, Senior Fellow Joshua Rauh testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, during a roundtable on “Reducing America’s National Debt: Rooting Out Federal Waste, Fraud, and Overregulation.” You can click here for a video of the roundtable; Rauh's testimony begins at approximately 25:30. Rauh argues that the federal budget is under “severe immediate pressure,” with net interest outlays accounting for 25% of federal revenue (excluding Social Security revenue) last year. Under current law, Rauh notes based on his research, this figure will grow significantly over coming decades. To preserve spending and borrowing flexibility in the event of a major crisis, Rauh says, the nation’s current fiscal problems demand immediate and serious attention.
Hear why Rauh believes the US fiscal situation requires citizens’ and lawmakers’ attention now.
Arms Control History
A new book by Hoover Institution Research Fellow Rose Gottemoeller offers an insider’s account of how leaders in Washington and the newly democratic Russian government forged a working relationship that advanced international security and cooperation in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Security Through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons, and US-Russia Relations after the Cold War, published this year by Stanford University Press, Gottemoeller challenges the view held by some contemporary Russian officials and commentators that the United States sought to weaken or isolate Russia during the turbulent post-Soviet transition of the 1990s. According to that narrative, the United States was primarily focused on expanding NATO and undermining Russian influence.
Dive into the examples of US-Russia cooperation Gottemoeller chronicles in her new book.
State and Local Governance
The United States is a nation dotted with so-called “company towns,” or population centers where a single business or industry dominates not only the local economy but local government and the community ethos as well. But what happens when a town and an industry in decline part ways, leaving it to local government and civic leaders to take up the slack? On a new episode of Matters of Policy & Politics, Hoover Fellow Elizabeth Elder discusses what has transpired in those portions of America (particularly Appalachia and the Midwest) once dominated by since-diminished industries, and the lack of institutional confidence that followed. The conversation builds on Elder’s interviews, polling, and data chronicled in her new book, Company Towns: Industry Power and the Historical Foundations of Public Mistrust.
See why company towns where the main industry has declined face unique governance challenges.
Confronting and Competing with China
In an appearance yesterday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Distinguished Research Fellow Michael Auslin said that “Chinese leader Xi Jinping invoking the ‘Thucydides Trap’ during meetings with President Trump is ‘not good history’” and amounts to a “sign of weakness.” Auslin argues that Xi uses this phrase “because it's a tool to freeze the Americans in place by raising the fear that we're going to stumble into war.” Auslin further explains that Chinese diplomats have deployed this concept “for a very long time over economics." As he notes, the idea of the Thucydides Trap is invoked by Chinese officials to try to scare their American counterparts away from calling out abuses of Uyghurs, coercive trade practices, or aggression against states like Taiwan or Japan. The historian adds that the success of US operations against Iran have heightened Chinese military insecurities, as Xi and his generals understand that they lack similar power projection capabilities.
Why isn’t the Thucydides Trap “good history” for making sense of the US-China relationship?
Related Commentary