Now in its fourth year, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives’ Workshop on Political Economy brings together scholars from across the globe to study the history of economic thought using the archives of such notable thinkers as Karl Popper, Milton Friedman, and F.A. Hayek.  This year the workshop welcomed Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and author of The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power (2015), who presented a keynote address on June 28^th.

The Hoover Institution hosted the Board of Overseers’ Summer Meeting on July 12–14, 2011.

On Tuesday evening, Hoover fellows discussed topics relating to defense, global issues, entitlements, and the state of the economy. Victor Davis Hanson and Bruce Thornton’s speech was titled “America Abroad: Appeasement or Deterrence?” David Brady and John Cogan’s presentation was titled “Entitlements, Debt and Electoral Politics: How Did We Get Where We Are–and Where Do We Go from Here?” In their speech titled “The Road Ahead for the Fed: Two Years Later,” John Taylor and Kevin Warsh discussed the state of the economy today.

Peter Schweizer and Wynton C. Hall tell how they captured history in their new book, a look at oratory that was powerful bot on the podium and in society.

A review of episodes in economic and intellectual history indicates the superiority of a limited government market economy over the alternative models of economic organization. The siren calls of pundits, politicians, and even some economists in favor of communist central planning during the Great Depression; market socialism after World War II; and, more recently, massive welfare states and/or extensive government micromanagement of markets each ran afoul of their own problems and comparisons to the limited government (based on sound criteria) capitalist model. The limited government capitalist model, once again under attack from those who would greatly expand the role of government, needs its defenders, as the alternative models have proven historically, intellectually, and practically bankrupt.