Amity Shlaes, historian, author, and columnist for Bloomberg News and the author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (Harper Collins, 2007), discussed the landmark 1936 presidential election and the shock waves it produced, reverberating to this day, in her dinner talk on Wednesday.

Robert Hall, the Robert and Carole McNeil Senior Fellow, disputed claims that the economy is in recession in his presentation titled “Recession? Depression? Or Just a Slowdown?”

Daron Shaw, associate professor in the Department of Government at the University Texas, Austin, noted that for the first time since 1952, no incumbent president or vice president is campaigning in this year’s presidential election.

David Brady, Hoover deputy director and senior fellow, analyzed the upcoming election. “For all the Democrats careful planning to finish in February, the campaign is still going on,” Brady said.

Yang, a partner with the Garin Hart Yang Research Group, analyzed the upcoming election.

John Abizaid, U.S. Army general (ret.) and Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow, spoke at the May retreat. The activities under way in the Middle East, not just Iraq, are of vital national importance for the United States, Abizaid said in his presentation.

Giora Eiland, Israeli Army major general (ret.), senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, and former Israeli national security adviser, spoke at the May retreat. “Iran is a new emerging force in Middle East,” said Eiland. He discussed Iran’s desire to become a nuclear power, which he warned was likely to happen regardless of who leads the country.

James Ceaser, a member of the Hoover Task Force on the Virtues of a Free Society and a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, spoke about the campaign strategies of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. “The 2008 presidential election will turn on one of two issues, foreign policy or domestic matters,” Ceaser said.