The presidential election, state department outlook, and global upheaval were discussed at Board of Overseers meeting.

The Hoover Archives has recently acquired important new materials that document both the history of communism and the difficult transitions to democracy that took place in Russia, Latin America, and elsewhere once the Cold War was finally over. Hoover deputy director Charles Palm reports.

The Hoover Institution Spring 2012 Retreat began on Sunday, April 22, 2012, with before-dinner remarks by John Stossel, a commentator on the Fox Business Network, where he hosts Stossel, a weekly program highlighting current consumer issues from a libertarian viewpoint. Before joining Fox, he coanchored ABC’s prime-time news magazine show 20/20. He discussed his new book No, They Can’t: Why Government Fails—but Individuals Succeed, which depicts Stossel’s ideas of “what we’re imprinted to believe and what reality has taught [him].” Stossel, in talking about how people are unsatisfied with the government today and how the free market system works better for our society, stressed how “central planning appeals to people” and how we are “programmed to follow the central planner.”