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Hoover Daily Report | April 29, 2026 · Hoover Daily Report

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  Welcome to "the Hoover Daily Report". Ideas Advancing
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  Freedom. It's Wednesday, April 29th, twenty twenty six.
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  Today, Eyck Freymann explains why the United States must prepare for a variety
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  of crisis scenarios surrounding Taiwan beyond a clear military attack; Hoover
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  invites the nation’s high school and college students to enter our spoken-word
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  competition on America’s founding ideals; and Eugene Volokh analyzes the recent
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  indictment of former FBI director James Comey over an Instagram post from a First
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  Amendment law perspective.
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  The Real Threat to Taiwan.
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  In a new essay for Foreign Affairs, Hoover Fellow Eyck Freymann argues that
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  the true threat facing Taiwan—and by extension the United States’ foreign
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  policy with respect to that self-governing island nation off China’s
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  coast—is not a barrage of missiles or other military action; rather, it’s a
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  crisis, a slower strangulation of Taiwan under the guise of a “quarantine” or
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  similar assertion of China’s
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  administrative control.
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  Freymann
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  makes the case that
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  US diplomats and military strategists have prioritized planning around military
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  contingencies and have neglected important, if less extreme on their face,
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  crisis scenarios. He identifies areas
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  where the US can bolster
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  its deterrence efforts
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  around the contested island. “The United States, its allies, and the people of
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  Taiwan can sustain peace for
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  another generation,” Freymann concludes,
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  “but only if the allies start preparing for a crisis, not just a war.”.
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  The American Experiment in Your Words.
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  Calling all poets! To mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of
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  Independence, the Hoover Institution invites high school and college students
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  to reflect on the meaning and the future of the American experiment through the
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  spoken word. The ideals of the American Founding have always required the active
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  engagement of citizens to carry them forward. Today we’re asking students: At
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  this moment, what do America's founding ideals demand? Where have they endured,
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  and where do they need to be reclaimed, reinterpreted, or renewed? Full details
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  are available at the links above and below; this competition closes on June 1,
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  2026. One winner in each division will receive a $2,500 prize plus an
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  expenses-paid visit to the Hoover Institution to perform their spoken-word
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  composition.
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  Analyzing Indictment of James Comey for "86 47" Post.
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  Writing at his Volokh Conspiracy blog, Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh examines the
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  indictment announced yesterday of former FBI Director James Comey over Comey’s
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  2025 Instagram post depicting seashells arranged to show “86 47.” The indictment
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  alleges that “a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would
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  interpret [this post] as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the
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  President of the United States.” Volokh explains why, in his view, “this
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  prosecution is unjustified, and will get thrown out.”
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  Volokh notes that “with the right context, very many things could be seen
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  as threats of violence,” but in this case, no context he’s aware of “would
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  lead Comey's tweet to be reasonably interpreted that way.” The “true threat”
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  exception to free-speech protections “only extends to statements that really
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  would be reasonably understood as threats,” the leading First Amendment
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  scholar writes.
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  How American Defamation Law Works.
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  Can you be sued for repeating a rumor—even if you say you don’t believe
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  it? Is calling someone a “racist” an allegation of fact or opinion? In this
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  new episode of Free Speech Unmuted, Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh and cohost
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  Jane Bambauer unpack the hidden rules of defamation law, from libel and slander to
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  viral tweets and billion-dollar verdicts. This conversation offers a deep dive into
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  what you can freely say, what you can be sued for, and why the biggest legal
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  battles often turn on the smallest details. In an age featuring frequent
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  controversies over the legality of various acts of speech, this discussion
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  between two seasoned First Amendment lawyers is sure to illuminate this area
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  of law for listeners.
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  The Evolution of Returns to Cognitive Skills Across Countries: Evidence on
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  Factor Price Equalization.
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  Last Wednesday, Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek presented research to Hoover’s
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  Economic Policy Working Group on “how returns to cognitive skills have evolved
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  over the past decade in 23 developed countries.” Hanushek and his coauthors
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  found “strong convergence consistent with factor price equalization.” As they
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  write, “On average across countries, earnings increase by 16.7 percent per
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  standard deviation in numeracy skills in 2023, a decline from 20.3 in 2012.” The
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  authors also find “substantial cross-country heterogeneity, with
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  one-third of countries seeing increased returns.” Hanushek says that “much of the
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  cross-country variation in the changes to skill returns can be accounted for by
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  convergence, whereas other factors including technological change do not
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  contribute.” He concludes that “the speed of convergence is faster in countries
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  with more labor-market flexibility and openness to trade, especially in
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  intangibles.”.
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  Featured Hoover Publication: Improving Care for Medicare Beneficiaries in
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  Long-Term Care.
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  More than 1.2 million Americans live in nursing homes, and that number is rising.
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  Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNPs) are Medicare Advantage plans
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  designed for long-term-care residents that reduce hospitalizations through
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  on-site clinical teams and aligned financial incentives. Yet few eligible
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  beneficiaries are enrolled. This essay by Visiting Fellow Brian Miller and
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  coauthors reviews the evidence on I-SNPs and recommends regulatory reforms to make
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  I-SNPs more successful and accessible.
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  That’s your Hoover Daily Report for Wednesday, April 29th, twenty twenty six.
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  Each weekday, we bring you research, analysis, and commentary focused on
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  public policy, national security, and the ideas shaping American society and
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  government.
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  The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is grounded in constitutional
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  principles with a commitment to sustaining the safeguards of the American
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  way of life.
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  Thank you for listening.
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  For links to all the articles and interviews mentioned today, visit
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  hoover.org slash, HDR.