Today, Condoleezza Rice speaks about a possible return to nuclear detonation testing, the future for Ukraine as it resists Russia’s invasion, and what might happen to Venezuelan dictator and election stealer Nicolas Maduro. Arzan Tarapore writes about the uncertainty surrounding the Quad security partnership and the immense value that informal alliance still offers the free world. And David R. Henderson argues why billionaires should not be taxed, regulated, and denigrated out of existence.
Determining America’s Role in the World
On the Fox News program America’s Newsroom this Thursday morning, Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice spoke about a possible return of US and Russian nuclear testing, the need to continue pressuring Vladimir Putin on his invasion of Ukraine, what the thinking is about the buildup of forces in the Caribbean, and how young people in the United States view socialism favorably. On Maduro, Rice said the administration should not take the decision to strike Venezuelan soil lightly and that regime change is not a worthy goal. Regarding Russia, Rice said the US should continue to give the Ukrainians the means to impose real economic costs on Russia through strikes on its oil infrastructure and should finally release the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild. Watch the conversation here.
In Foreign Policy, Visiting Fellow Arzan Tarapore writes about how vital the Quad—the informal security compact of the US, India, Japan, and Australia—still is to Indo-Pacific security, but also that tensions between the US and India threaten to scuttle its next meeting. Tarapore says there are more reasons than ever to support and maintain the Quad, including the threat of natural disasters in the region, Chinese threats to capture Taiwan, and general Chinese coercion efforts towards its neighbors. Tarapore says they should work together to stockpile munitions, increase resilience in critical infrastructure, increase interoperability of their militaries, and coordinate defense plans with one another. “If the Quad partners can agree on anything, it is that the Indo-Pacific cannot be free and open without also being secure,” he writes. Read more here.
The Economy
In Defining Ideas, Research Fellow David R. Henderson dissects the argument made by New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and others that “billionaires should not exist.” Interrogating the idea from the perspective of Mamdani’s proposal to raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, Henderson focuses on two unassailable facts. First, Henderson argues that in a capitalist state, individuals should be able to keep some meaningful portion of what they earn in the market. He points out even Senator Bernie Sanders defended the income he received for writing a best-selling book. Also, Henderson demonstrates that billionaires make the people around them better off by producing products and services that benefit others. Read more here.
On the latest episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century, Policy Fellow Jon Hartley speaks with George Tavlas on his career as an economist, including his work at the Bank of Greece, the history of monetarism, the evolution of central banking through the years and more. They discuss Tavlas’s book The Monetarists: The Making of the Chicago Monetary Tradition, which tells the stories of all those who came together to build the “Chicago school” of economic thought from the 1930s to the 1960s. Hartley and Tavlas also speak about how interest in monetarism has returned after the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch or listen to their conversation here.
Confronting and Competing with China
On the latest episode of China Considered, Senior Fellow Elizabeth Economy speaks with Dr. Joanna Lewis of Georgetown University and Dr. Scott Moore of the University of Pennsylvania to explore China’s commanding position in the global clean energy sector and its far-reaching implications. The two experts explain how China has become both the world’s largest manufacturer and consumer of clean energy technologies, dominating supply chains from raw materials through finished products like solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries. The conversation tackles the complex question of whether China can be considered a climate leader, revealing a mixed picture of impressive renewable energy investments alongside continued heavy coal dependence. Watch or listen to the conversation here.
Related Commentary