Latest / Hoover Daily Report / Hoover Daily Report | February 19, 2026

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Hoover Daily Report | February 19, 2026 · Hoover Daily Report

• 0:00
  - Welcome to the Hoover Daily Report,
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  ideas Advancing Freedom.
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  It's Thursday, February 19th, 2026.
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  - Today, David Henderson explains
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  how economic freedom improves the lives
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  of individuals at all income levels.
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  Ross Levine lays out the moral hazards
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  and financial dangers.
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  Kevin Walsh must confront if he's confirmed
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  as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, and Saru
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  and David Larker examine the shift in investors' attitudes
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  toward environmental, social,
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  and governance, investing over recent years.
• 0:27
  - Why economic freedom matters at defining ideas.
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  Research fellow David R. Henderson explores the five
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  elements of economic freedom, the moving parts
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  that determine whether people can act on opportunities in
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  their Society for America.
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  The good news is that we rank fifth in the world
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  for economic freedom.
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  Henderson says the bad news he continues is
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  that economic freedom in the United States
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  and the rest of the world is lower than it
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  was seven years ago.
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  This matters because it shows
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  how freedom can shrink even under temporary expedience, such
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  as pandemic measures the economist rights.
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  Even so, the lot
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  of low income people remains brighter in
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  high freedom countries.
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  Henderson says, showing
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  that economic freedom is not just something
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  for the rich Henderson concludes
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  that economic freedom makes it possible
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  for the vast majority of people to do well.
• 1:19
  - Why wars won't be remembered for cutting rates.
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  Writing at Barron's Senior fellow Ross Levine says
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  that even though his Hoover Institution colleague
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  Kevin Walsh hasn't been confirmed by the Senate to serve
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  as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, economists
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  and commentators are already speculating about
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  what his tenure will look like
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  and what stamp he will leave on the institution.
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  Joining this forward-looking analysis, Levine argues
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  that war's tenure won't be defined
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  by interest rate decisions,
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  but rather will be shaped by
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  how he handles weakening financial market,
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  discipline and regulation.
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  Levine warns of the dangers of continuing
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  with a fake market oversight approach at the Fed wherein
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  investors and executives are insulated from catastrophic
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  losses through explicit or implicit government protection.
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  Levine concludes War's Legacy hinges on whether he confronts
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  the dangerous approach that took hold in the Fed in 2008
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  and accelerated over the past year.
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  - Research reveals a fundamental shift in
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  how investors view ESG.
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  In an essay for the Harvard Business Review,
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  senior fellow Amit Seru,
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  distinguished visiting fellow David Larker
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  and co-author Brian Tayan, analyze how attitudes
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  among investors toward environmental, social and governance
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  or ESG investing have shifted in recent years.
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  As recently as five years ago, ESG was pitched
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  as a market revolution led by idealistic young investors
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  and destined to reinvent investing five years
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  and a few economic shocks later.
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  The revolution looks more like a recalibration,
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  but that doesn't mean ESG has disappeared.
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  The authors find they note
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  that investors are significantly less willing today
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  to sacrifice returns to support environmental causes.
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  The authors conclude
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  that ESG has not disappeared from investors' minds,
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  but is now more subject to constraints, opportunity costs,
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  and changing economic realities.
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  - Taiwan is not China's sudetenland.
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  In the 1930s,
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  Wright's visiting fellow Miles Yu at the Hudson Institute
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  website, Adolf Hitler fixated the world's attention on the s
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  Daton land, a small German speaking enclave within the
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  sovereign state of Czechoslovakia.
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  Hitler and his regime wanted Britain
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  and France to believe that this territory was the one issue
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  that must be resolved at all costs.
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  Today, Yu continues.
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  The Chinese Communist Party wants us
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  to believe Taiwan is China's sudetenland,
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  but you warns that like Hitler Beijing's appetite extends
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  far beyond a single territory
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  as China is simultaneously pressing claims against India,
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  Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunai, Bhutan,
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  and others, both on land and at sea.
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  Recalling the history of the Sux Dayton land, you concludes
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  that allowing China to conquer Taiwan will trigger a long
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  chain of aggression that will engulf the world once again.
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  In a global conflagration,
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  - Hoover opens 30 plus exclusive interviews with Cheney,
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  Powell Schultz, and other key foreign policy leaders.
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  The Hoover Institution Library
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  and Archives has announced the opening
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  of more than 30 interviews
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  with influential political figures from the collection
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  of author James Mann.
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  The newly available material includes interviews
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  with former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary
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  of Defense, Colin Powell, former National Security Advisors,
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  Brent Sko Croft,
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  and s Big New Brezinski, former Secretary of State,
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  George Schultz, and former US Diplomat,
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  Richard Armitage, among others.
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  Many of the interviews were conducted for man's book,
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  the Great Rift, which details the relationship
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  between Dick Cheney and Colin Powell.
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  These interviews compliment existing Hoover collections
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  related to late 20th
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  and early 21st century American foreign policy,
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  including the George P. Schultz, the Condoleezza Rice,
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  the Donald Rumsfeld,
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  and the George W. Bush administration records.
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  - This month in Hoover history, spies Lies
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  and Algorithms, A conversation with Amy Ziar
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  and Condoleezza Rice.
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  On February 22nd, 2022,
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  Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice interviewed
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  senior fellow Amy Ziar about her new book, spies Lies
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  and Algorithms, the History
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  and Future of American Intelligence.
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  This wide ranging conversation covered various topics in
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  global espionage, including the impacts
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  of advanced technologies on intelligence gathering
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  and analysis, and the struggle between the interests
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  of the intelligence, community,
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  and democratic accountability.
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  - That's your Hoover Daily report for Thursday,
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  February 19th, 2026.
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  Each weekday, we bring you research, analysis,
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  and commentary focused on public policy, national security,
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  and the ideas shaping American society and government.
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  The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is grounded in
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  constitutional principles with a commitment
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  to sustaining the safeguards of the American way of life.
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  Thank you for listening. For links to all the articles
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  and interviews mentioned today, visit hoover.org/hdr.