Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1, February 2014
Enterprise Report
Up in a Down Year
by AEI President Arthur Brooks
We all see the problems our nation and world face right now. The conventional narrative appears to be that we should be depressed about last year. For us at AEI, this narrative is simply incorrect. During challenging times, the greatest gift is to be part of the solution. And that is where we find ourselves. By all objective measures, AEI had a terrific year in 2013. Our work has never had more weight in policy and in the media than it did in 2013. Our supporters have never been more generous. Our principles-based, progressoriented approach has never been more in demand. We are ramping up our research and communications efforts in 2014 for maximum impact. From economic policy research to philanthropic freedom to our increasing campus presence, our scholars are advancing AEIs mission in new and innovative ways.
You will hear a lot in 2014 about AEIs new Program on Human Flourishing, which aims to help all people build better lives through the blessings of free enterprise. Just two examples of the programs work: AEIs new poverty research focuses on helping the most vulnerable succeed; meanwhile, the Dalai Lama will visit AEI this month to discuss the link between free enterprise and happiness. It is crucial that we show both the right and the left that the free enterprise system is best for America because it gives all of usespecially the most vulnerablethe best opportunity to build the lives we want. The Program on Human
Arthur Brooks
President, AEI
Flourishing will do just that and will communicate the results to millions.
AEIs scholarship is far-sighted and people-centered. Our shared vision of a better life for all people through free enterprise and American leadership is breaking through in new and unexpected ways.
Our focus on the vulnerable couldnt come at a more urgent time: workforce participation remains at levels not seen since the 1970s, food stamp recipiency is up 50 percent since 2009, and millions of Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure. We are doing particularly timely work on this last topic. My colleagues Ed Pinto and Stephen Oliner have determined that the Federal Housing Administration is threatening to gut low-income communities across the country by making a new cohort of paternalistic home loans to unqualified buyers. AEIs just-launched International Center on Housing Risk faces the problem head on. Ed and Stephen have singled out the biggest information gaps facing housing market decision makers and have compiled the most robust data set in existence to address those gaps. Now they are working with lenders and policymakers to reform mortgage rules. The vulnerable are not just within our borders, however, so AEIs research is not limited to America. While our leaders dither, volatile regions spin out of control and millions worldwide are victimized by ruthless dictators and warlords. In his forthcoming book, Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes, AEI resident scholar Michael Rubin explains why US diplomatic efforts are often ineffective in the face of humanitarian crises and national security threats. If America wants to bring Iran, North Korea, and Hezbollah to the table in a mood for serious negotiation, their leaders must know that America is serious about getting results. Michaels road map for diplomatic success is a fascinating read. AEIs scholarship is far-sighted and people-centered. Thanks to our community of scholars, supporters, and friendsjust a handful of whom are featured in this newsletterour shared vision of a better life for all people through free enterprise and American leadership is breaking through in new and unexpected ways. Thank you for your commitment to our cause, and I hope you will become even more involved with AEI in 2014.
Stephen D. Oliner, resident scholar at AEI, spent more than 25 years at the Federal Reserve Board and was closely involved in the Feds analysis of the US economy and financial markets. Oliner studies monetary policy and real estate issues with an eye to the growth potential of the US economy.
Many of them have never felt comfortable inside the tent of either major political party, so AEIs message of policy over politics resonates.
People in the Bay Area embrace AEIs values of expanding liberty, increasing
Katie Biber, leader of AEIs San Francisco Enterprise Club, senior counsel at Airbnb and former general counsel of Mitt Romneys 2012 presidential campaign. sort the mail, you learn the names of the big players pretty quickly.
Why did you join AEIs Enterprise Club and agree to take a leadership role in building the San Francisco chapter?
My earliest political memory is election night 1988, when I watched the evening news and colored in a map to show the states won by George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. Even then I had the sensibilities of a conservative or libertarian, but I lacked the vocabulary to apply labels. As I grew older, I became keenly interested in issues of policy in addition to pure politics, and I would frequently test my knowledge by debating the budding liberals in my class. When I moved to Washington, DC, for college, I took an internship with the Dole presidential campaign. I did nothing more than answer phones (I wasnt even issued a computer), but I was in love. Ive been involved in every presidential cycle since.
When did you first hear of AEI?
After my family moved to San Francisco last year, I was looking for meaningful involvement in a free enterprise cause. I have several friends involved with the DC chapter of the Enterprise Club, and one urged me to spend time working with AEI in San Francisco. Im very glad I took her advice.
AEIs first San Francisco Enterprise Club gathering, held in the fall with Charles Murray, had a great turnout. The Bay Area isnt known as a conservative hotbed why do you think AEI has an opening there?
The biggest hurdle for entrepreneurs in almost every industry is the regulatory red tape that makes it hard to disrupt incumbent players who have money and lobbyists to help shape the rules in their own favor. Beyond that, patent reform and a more thoughtful approach to taxes would help, among other things. So would a sensible health care law that entrepreneurs can understand and afford (without the assistance of a lawyer).
I worked on Capitol Hill as a college student. When your job is to open and
Actually, Ive found that most people in the Bay Area embrace AEIs values of expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. AEI has an opening because people here (and everywhere) are truly frustrated about the direction our country is heading. They are looking to make a difference on issues they care about and meet others who share their commitment to liberty.
For more information on AEIs Enterprise Clubs, contact development manager Emily Cox (202.862.5919; emily.cox@aei.org).
Michael Rubins pathbreaking history could not be more timely. Rubin shows how fifty years of dancing with devils by Democratic and Republican administrations has more often than not led to war instead of peace.
SEN. JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN.
Amb. John Bolton, Sec. William J. Bennett, and others have also delivered advance praise of the book.
The flexing of American military power can correct this imbalance and ensure that rogue states are more compliant in the aftermath of the talks. A state that knows the United States is loath to use its army is likely to misbehave. Rubins careful history of American diplomacy with Iran, North Korea, Iraq, and Libya, and with groups such as the Taliban, Hamas, and Hezbollah, reveals that career diplomats arent learning from the past. But our enemies areand the same old toothless diplomacy emboldens them. While the United States sits back and waits for rogues and terrorists to fully comply with an agreement, their centrifuges keep spinning, raising the hard-power cost that we ultimately pay to contain them.
Rubin describes a mistaken belief that rogue regimes desire the same global peace that America does, rather than their own aggrandizement. US diplomats negotiate with terrorist groups, ruthless dictators, and aspiring nuclear powers but are disappointed time and again when US inducements are not met with the agreed-upon reforms by the rogue power. By the time America sends in the cavalry to supplement its diplomatic efforts, the situation has usually devolved. A precarious civil order has begun to crumble, terrorist factions have gained a larger foothold, or would-be nuclear powers are closer to building a bomb. Rubin argues that a judicious mix of hard and soft power from the beginning would give negotiations a
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AEI Trustees, National Council, and Philanthropic Leaders Gather for Chairmans Dinner and Policy Discussions
Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) talked about their efforts to foster a spirit of bipartisanship among young (under-40) members of Congress.
AEIs board of trustees, National Council members, and scholars, together with philanthropic leaders and top policymakers, met at AEIs headquarters in early December for two days of off-the-record policy briefings and discussion of some of the most important issues of our time. The events included AEIs annual Chairmans Dinner, featuring a keynote by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who reflected on the challenges the 113th Congress faced over the past year and the plan for the critical months ahead. In addition to these policy discus-
sions, AEI held its first Philanthropic Freedom Project working group. Philanthropic leaders heard from Arthur Brooks and AEI scholars Michael Strain, Tim Carney, and Jim Pethokoukis about how to combine charitable efforts with free enterprise in our efforts to lift up the poor and vulnerable. This working group is part of AEIs broader effort to preserve and protect philanthropic freedom and includes original research on how charitable giving has changed in the United States in the wake of the Great Recession and how these changes have serious ramifications for future tax policy.
boost our well-being and our esteem in the eyes of others. On behalf of my colleagues in Americas millions of nonprofits, I want you to know were here for you. We want to help you become healthier, happier and better looking.
Arthur Brooks, Wall Street Journal (November 25, 2013), on the personal benefits of giving
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and other policy leaders engaged the AEI community on a range of policy topics.
Members of AEIs Legacy Society those who have included AEI as a beneficiary of their estates or long-term planninghave made unrestricted bequests, designated AEI as the beneficiary of a retirement account that AEI depends year-in and year-out on the generous annual support of people and organizations that share our principles and purpose. Just as important is the generosity of those who provide for AEIs future through their estate and tax planning strategies. will establish an endowed chair, and set up charitable estate trusts that benefit AEI and provide income to themselves or family members at considerable tax savings. For more information on how you can make a bequest or planned
gift to AEI, contact Nicole Ruman Skinner, Managing Director, Development (202.862.7189; nskinner@aei.org).
AEI to Honor Nobel Prize Recipient Eugene Fama at 2014 Annual Dinner
Eugene Fama, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics, has agreed to accept AEIs Irving Kristol Award at the 2014 AEI Annual Dinner in Washington on May 6, 2014. Fama, who serves as a member of AEIs Council of Academic Advisers, was recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his work on the pricing of assets. His efficient markets hypothesis holds that stock and bond markets assimilate new information so quickly that it is impossible to consistently beat the market. As a result of Famas work, millions of investors around the world now hold cheap-to-manage index funds designed to match stock markets performance. The Irving Kristol Award, named in honor of the longtime AEI senior fellow, is the Institutes highest honor. Previous recipients of the award (formerly called the Francis Boyer Award) include Gerald Ford, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Paul Ryan, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. Fama is the first Nobel Prize winner to be honored since Mario Vargas Llosa in 2005. If you are interested in purchasing a ticket or sponsoring a table at the Annual Dinner, please contact AEI senior development associate Windle Jarvis (202.862.5906; windle.jarvis@aei.org).
for two days of policy analysis and deep philosophical inquiry. The Dalai Lamas visit signifies both his and AEIs commitment to reorienting policy discussions around the question of happiness and human flourishing.
The summit will bring together eminent scholars and business leaders
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