2016 Year-End Update
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2016 Manhattan Institute President’s Update Manhattan Institute Trustees Chairman of the Board Paul E. Singer Elliott Associates, L.P. Vice Chairman Michael J. Fedak Chairmen Emeriti Charles H. Brunie Brunie Associates Richard Gilder* Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. Roger Hertog* Hertog Foundation President Lawrence J. Mone Trustees Andrew Cader Maurice R. Greenberg Rodney Nichols C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. Ann J. Charters Nick Ohnell Fleur Harlan Ohnell Capital Anthony P. Coles DLA Piper US LLP Roger Kimball Robert Rosenkranz The New Criterion Delphi Financial Group, Inc. Ravenel Curry Eagle Capital Management, LLC William Kristol Nathan E. Saint-Amand, MD The Weekly Standard Timothy G. Dalton, Jr. Thomas W. Smith Dalton, Greiner, Hartman, Maher & Co. Daniel Loeb Prescott Investors Third Point LLC Sean Michael Fieler Donald G. Tober Equinox Management Partners, L.P. David Malpass Sugar Foods Corporation Encima Global LLC Kenneth M. Garschina Bruce G. Wilcox Mason Capital Management Thomas E. McInerney Cumberland Associates, LLC Blue Point Associates Kenneth B. Gilman Kathryn S. Wylde Rebekah Mercer The Partnership For New York City Harvey Golub Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC Jay H. Newman Elliott Associates, L.P. *Former Trustee 2016 President’s Year -End Update Year 2016 President’s Table of Contents 2 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 10 OUR REACH 12 POLICY AREAS Health Care Economy and Opportunity Legal Energy and Environment Policing K-12 Education New York City Public Sector 28 CITY JOURNAL 30 ADAM SMITH SOCIETY 32 YOUNG LEADERS CIRCLE 34 BANNER EVENTS 36 RESEARCH 38 BOOKS 39 MEDIA 40 MI EXPERTS 1 DEAR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS, With the results of the 2016 election, America enters a new era. The best way to support the next The same goes for officials at the president and the incoming class of state and local levels. Reformist congressmen, governors, mayors, leaders continue to rise up in cities Sound public and state and local legislators is to and states across the country. Fresh provide them with ideas that can off electoral victories, governors and policies at respond to the frustration, alienation, mayors will want and need ideas on and despair clearly—and correctly— how to better their locales: what they all levels of felt by so many citizens. Elections do can do to advance improvements not alter MI’s fundamental mission in areas such as education, public government, of providing reasoned, fact-based safety, infrastructure, transit, and analysis and educating both policy- business regulation. strong families, makers and the general public. They do, however, inform our strategy of Moreover, we cannot neglect the and healthy how we seek to move the climate of urgent need to reinvigorate civil opinion and drive reform. society. Even with new leaders social norms… in office, there are limits to what Let’s start with Washington, D.C., government—at any level—can will all be where we anticipate having a new set hope to accomplish, especially with necessary to of opportunities to promote nation- respect to deep-seated social ills. al-policy change. The new adminis- unlock the tration will mean a shakeup within In short, MI recognizes that change the federal bureaucracy. We can can, and must, come from many promise of anticipate new appointments to the different sources. Sound public federal judiciary, including the U.S. policies at all levels of government, America. Supreme Court. Congress will have strong families, and healthy social to work with the administration to norms that help prepare and enable forge a governing agenda. Amid this individuals to succeed, will all be sea change in leadership, policymak- necessary to unlock the promise ers will be in search of new ideas. of America. 2 Heather Mac Donald in Chicago Paul Howard at an IQ2 event on drug prices To move the needle on all of these working-class communities that exports. In December 2015, Congress fronts, MI has grown (and, as have struggled with the effects of showed that it was listening, voting stewards of philanthropic funds deindustrialization and cultural to lift the 40-year ban on U.S. entrusted to us, we have done so breakdown, and millennials who are domestic crude oil exports. There carefully). We have added to our saddled with student debt and unable remain, however, far too many other roster of scholars and have made to find jobs—all have good reason to anachronistic policies, enacted on a number of strategic additions to want better. the false premise that America and the staff responsible for ensuring the world are running out of energy. that our ideas reach an ever-wider Strong economic growth is a prereq- Such policies are barriers to realizing audience of citizens and officehold- uisite for broad-based prosperity the improved standard of living that ers. To publicize our research and and opportunity, and you can our energy abundance can provide. policy journalism, we have activated expect MI to call for policies that MI will work to clear these barriers new distribution channels, even as remove impediments to entre- away. Also, expect us to build on we have worked to maintain our preneurship, business expansion, our efforts in shaping debate over edge in traditional media—whether and investment. This starts with a the appropriate role of renewable op-eds, books, television, or radio. national energy-policy agenda that energy forms. Apocalyptic fears unleashes the economic potential about climate change have led many MI’s agenda, which encompass- of America’s domestic assets policymakers to adopt aggressive es a range of domestic issue areas, and ensures access to affordable, plans to transition to sources such as reflects a core vision and set of reliable, and abundant electricity solar and wind—but as Robert Bryce goals—with opportunity for all for businesses and consumers. In and Oren Cass argue, these policies, Americans chief among them. The this regard, we have made a tangible such as renewable mandates at the fact that many Americans feel their difference. For the past five years, state level and the EPA’s Clean Power opportunities are limited should senior fellow Mark Mills has argued Plan, will be of minimal benefit to come as no surprise to those who that the revolution in oil and gas the planet, while imposing devas- are familiar with our research, drilling techniques, as well as the tating costs on the economy and analysis, and commentary. Minority energy abundance that they have consumers, especially on people of citizens who have been stuck in unlocked, made it time to reverse modest means. cycles of intergenerational poverty, the decades-old ban on such energy 2016 President’s Year-End Update Letter From The President 3 Mark Mills at an MI energy event MI’s legal policy team: Peggy O’Keefe, James Copland & Rafael Mangual Our energy team at MI is a great example of how we choose to approach policymaking and persuasion. Those who write for us about energy policy bring a diversity of perspectives. They include a top labor economist, a seasoned reporter and author, a former business management consultant, a physicist and development engineer, and a lawyer and mechanical engineer. Not a day goes by without an MI fellow advocating for sound energy policy on the radio or in newspapers, or ness; Proxy Monitor will keep shining entrepreneurship and draw without citations or mentions of light on activists who seek to curtail Americans back into the workforce. their work shaping national thinking the democratic process by covertly These include lowering corporate on this issue. advancing their social and economic taxes and reforming entitlements agendas through shareholder votes; so that the young will not, as senior Clear laws and regulations, along and our Overcriminalizing America fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roth and with consistent enforcement, are project is working to rein in laws and her colleague Jared Meyer have prerequisites for business growth and prosecutorial practices, at the state put it, be “disinherited.” Furcht- investment. MI’s legal-policy shop, and federal levels, that misapply gott-Roth, who heads our economic led by James Copland, is dedicated criminal laws to matters that are better policy division, e21, champions to exposing actors who would take dealt with via civil proceedings—or are these and other reforms. She will advantage of the legal system for not wrongdoings at all. provide rapid-response analysis of personal gain; and to promoting the policy proposals being debated reforms that uphold the rule of law. To spur our economy, we believe that nationally. MI’s Shadow Open Market MI’s report series Trial Lawyers, Inc. we must not only beat back policies Committee (SOMC), composed of will continue to expose the economic that stand in the way of growth but top academic economists who follow consequences of excessive litigious- also propose ideas that can encourage and comment on the actions of the 4 Diana Furchtgott-Roth at the Politico “Boomer Women and the Election” panel Federal Reserve, will challenge the costs, while finding more cost-effec- an important milestone in this area: Fed to make clear how and why it tive ways of expanding access for the the U.S. House of Representatives is crafting monetary policy. And needy and vulnerable. passed bipartisan legislation that Meyer will continue to shape the included many reforms that Huber national conversation about the Many diseases that we confront and other Project FDA contributors sharing economy and its potential to today, whether cancers or multiple have proposed. The U.S. Senate is drive innovation and job growth— sclerosis, require precision considering several pieces of legisla- if ill-conceived regulation is not treatments, tailored to an individ- tion that include similar reforms. We permitted to stifle it. ual’s biochemistry—treatments have reasons to be optimistic that at that medical science is now making least some elements of what we have A national opportunity agenda must possible.