GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics

As the US and Iran prepare to sign a memorandum of understanding halting hostilities in the Middle East, will the agreement hold up for long given fundamental differences over Iran’s nuclear ambitions (another 60 days of negotiating), its funding of terrorist proxies across the region, plus Israel’s actions in Lebanon? If he succeeds in putting Iran in the rear-view window, does President Trump turn his attention to brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine (that war now approaching four years and four months of fighting) as well as ending Cuba’s communist dictatorship? Finally, speaking of invasions, GoodFellows’ resident Scotsman explains the joy of his countrymen’s “Tartan Army” coming to Boston – thousands of kilt-wearing lads and lasses singing, marching and pub-crawling their way through Beantown whilst rooting on a Scottish national team making its first World Cup appearance in this century. 

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In a special “mailbag” episode, Hoover senior fellows Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster answer audience questions. Among the topics (after a brief opening segment devoted to the latest in the Iran-US impasse – aka, “Schrödinger’s ceasefire”): who are today’s great leaders; is “the American experiment” doomed, as some intellectuals posit; China’s move to gold from dollar-denominated securities; the futures of the European Union and the UK’s Reform movement; North Korea’s relative silence; the cooled-down rhetoric of climate change; whether our PhD-wielding historians bother with televised historical dramas; thoughts on gentlemen-scholars’ sartorial style (“buy [clothes] when you’re a graduate student and wear them until they fall apart”); plus managerial lessons to be drawn from the recent successes of Sir Niall’s beloved Arsenal football club. 

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Is it time to rethink the configuration of the US Supreme Court – not nine justices divided along lockstep ideological lines, but three groups of three justices, each clique with a different approach to jurisprudence? So argues court watcher and legal analyst Sarah Isgur, who discusses her new book, Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court, and explains where the justices stand on a series of contentious issues (“birthright citizenship”, the administrative state, abortion, the court’s relationship with an antagonistic president on matters like tariffs and executive authority, plus maintaining a semblance of impartiality in a polarized Washington). After that: the three fellows discuss what’s next in Iran with peace negotiations seemingly at an impasse, what to expect from this week’s US-China summit in Beijing, plus what challenges lie ahead for Hoover fellow Kevin Warsh as he takes over as the Federal Reserve’s new chair. 

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As part of the Hoover Institution’s ongoing USA@250 celebration of the founding of the American republic, a live GoodFellows episode recorded on the campus of Stanford University focusing on the US Constitution – in tech terms, America’s “operating system”. Goodfellows regulars Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster discuss the root causes of the American Revolution (taxation without representation, though the Scottish-born panelist contends the colonists in fact had a “fantastic deal”), the Constitution’s underlying principles (recognizing but not granting rights), why a document that’s more “machinery” than “visionary” in its design has stood the test of time, plus whether several provisions within the original framework and its 27 amendments (presidential eligibility, gun rights, “birthright citizenship”) need updating a world the Founding Fathers couldn’t imagine.

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Hoover Institution research fellow and Iran scholar Abbas Milani joins the GoodFellows to discuss life within the beleaguered theocracy: who’s in charge, and will added economic pressure in the form of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and a halt on Iran’s oil trade bring about an end to the regime. After that: the fellows’ thoughts on Hungary’s election, Iran war “winners and losers”, America’s woeful tax code, and the Artemis II space mission.

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