Today, Hoover announces the launch of Hoover+, a new home for podcasts, videos, and other multimedia content from the Hoover Institution; Scott Atlas outlines the vision of an educated American citizenry championed by Thomas Jefferson; and John Cochrane explains the enduring wisdom of Alexander Hamilton’s approach to national debt.
Hoover News
Fans of the Hoover Institution’s expansive video, podcast, and live event library can now access it all in one place: Hoover+. At Hoover+, the Institution’s new digital destination, its videos, podcasts, documentaries, educational content, and other programming on a variety of economic and political issues are now available to anyone, anytime. “With Hoover+, our organization is making it easier than ever for the inquisitive public to see and hear how Hoover Institution fellows are generating unique and valuable insights in a complex world,” Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Daniel Bingham said. “Whether it’s to binge-watch your favorite podcast or dive deep into a particular policy issue, Hoover+ puts our supporters and the public in the driver’s seat in a way that is personal, customizable, and convenient.” Read more here.
US History
Thomas Jefferson broke with other founding figures of the American Revolution with his insistence that the newborn nation would not thrive under a leadership of elites, writes Senior Fellow Scott W. Atlas for the Founders & Fellows channel at Freedom Frequency. Instead, Jefferson insisted on an educated citizenry as the guardians of liberty and the guarantors of its future progress. Atlas points out that Jefferson, who wrote his own epitaph, gave pride of place in it to his founding of the University of Virginia, his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, and his drafting of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom—and didn’t mention his time in the presidency at all. Jefferson’s university omitted a chapel at the center of the campus, replacing it with a library. Jefferson’s radical idea of reason-centered education was created to fend off the corruption of power and the pitfalls of ignorance, lessons that remain relevant today as Jefferson’s vision comes under siege, Atlas writes. Read more here.
Economic Policy
In this week’s Grumpy Economist Weekly Rant, Senior Fellow John H. Cochrane revisits Alexander Hamilton’s approach to the large public debt left by the Revolutionary War. Rather than repudiate the debt or inflate it away, Hamilton argued, the new United States should honor its contracts and repay creditors (original and secondary alike) according to their original terms—even at substantial short-term cost—to establish the country’s financial reputation and to preserve its ability to borrow in the future. Cochrane argues that Hamilton also understood the danger of allowing debt to grow without a plan for repayment. Federal assumption of state debts required the federal government to have the taxing authority to service them, while creditors themselves created a political constituency for sound public finances. Cochrane sees an enduring, if simple, principle in this history: New debt should always come with the means to repay it. Watch or listen here.
Confronting and Competing with China
In the Taiwan Strait, can the United States deter China?
The Big Idea: In a new episode of Policy Stories, Hoover Fellow Eyck Freymann argues that Beijing is increasing pressure on Taiwan while exploiting gaps in allied coordination across military, economic, and political policy. Preventing a crisis, he explains, will require an integrated strategy, not parallel national efforts. Watch here.
Energy Policy
How can the United States keep energy affordable as electricity demand rises?
The Big Idea: The United States benefits from some of the lowest energy prices in the developed world. As Senior Fellow Steven J. Davis explains in this presentation, meeting growing demand from AI, industry, and households will require not only expanding energy supply but also lowering the regulatory and construction barriers that make new infrastructure slower and more expensive to build. Watch here.
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