Issue No. 1, Winter 2016

Enterprise Report Restoring Liberty, Opportunity, and Enterprise in America

Security and Free Enterprise at Home and Abroad By AEI President Arthur Brooks

AEI Chairman Tully Friedman, my colleagues Michael Auslin and Daniel Blumenthal, and I recently returned from a trip to Singapore and . We met with a variety of government and business leaders and exchanged ideas about free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and security. We also had the honor of meeting with the prime minister of Singapore and the prime minister of . Japan is not only one of America’s most important allies but also the oldest democracy in Asia. It plays a pivotal role in maintaining stability in the region, particularly in the face of Chinese aggrandizement. Japan’s security is of prime importance to the , and American leadership in the region is crucial. Regrettably, despite an increasingly brazen China and a volatile North Korea, we are not hearing much from today’s presidential candidates about how to maintain regional stability. A major new AEI report tackles these issues head-on, along with a revanchist Russia and the ruthless Islamic State. Titled Why American Leader- ship Still Matters and developed through a bipartisan effort led by former Sens. Jon Kyl and Joseph Lieberman, the report explains why the world needs more—not less—leadership from the United States. See page 3 for more on this report. While in Singapore, I had the opportunity to speak with students at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. I focused on the message that capitalism is the best way to help the poorest among us. Singapore is an incredible economic success story, gaining indepen- dence from Malaysia in the 1960s with virtually no economy to speak of, and then be- Arthur Brooks coming one of the wealthiest city-states in the world within a generation. That revolutionary AEI President and success was driven not primarily through foreign aid or international philanthropy, but by Beth and Ravenel Curry capitalism and economic liberty. Scholar in Free Enterprise AEI is leading the conversation about how best to help the poor here at home, as well. As you will read on pages 4 and 5, we are talking with presidential candidates and setting the narrative for conservatives to show how free enterprise principles lead to the greatest human flourishing. We are also working across the aisle through efforts such as the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity to address poverty and lack of opportunity in America. One of AEI’s top priorities is sharing our principles broadly and communicating our ideas with people across the country and around the world. To this end, we are bolstering our communications efforts with innovative new products and practices. One especially exciting new initiative is our forthcoming feature-length documentary (see page 7). The film will spotlight our unique message, drawing together themes such as free enterprise, meaningful work, and the sources of human happiness. We are speaking with people and gathering stories everywhere from New York and Appalachia to Copenhagen, Mumbai, and the Dalai Lama’s monastery in the Himalayan foothills. And while we develop new ways to share AEI scholars’ work with the world, we are also working to expand our own community. In the coming year, we will grow our network of diverse state-based leaders and young business leaders who are helping to share our ideas and bolster the number of college students learning from our scholars. See page 8 for special announcements and updates about these programs. Of course, all this new work—including our path-breaking research—is only possible thanks to you, our supporters, who are practicing and sharing free enterprise principles in your own lives and communities. I am truly excited to build on the successes we have shared over the past year, and I look forward to what we will achieve together in the next.

AEI Annual Report AEI’s 2015 Annual Report is now available online: www.aei.org/publication/2015-annual-report/. We are glad to provide copies on request; please contact Gwendolyn Gorse at [email protected]. Why American Leadership Still Matters

In December, the American Inter- nationalism Project—a bipartisan working group of top academics and policy experts led by Senators Jon Kyl and Joseph Lieberman—released its report Why American Leadership Still Matters, edited by AEI’s Phillip Lohaus. Steering Committee The report reflects the fundamental ELLIOTT ABRAMS consensus of the project’s members that Council on Foreign Relations American global leadership is just as DAVID ADESNIK crucial to the security, prosperity, and Foreign Policy Initiative freedom of the American people today THOMAS DONNELLY as it was 70 years ago. American Enterprise Institute The authors warn that “an increas- MACKENZIE EAGLEN American Enterprise Institute ingly brazen China, revanchist Russia, volatile North Korea, and ruthless “Our time pondering the role ERIC EDELMAN Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Islamic State collectively underscore of America in the world shows International Studies the need for more, not less, American that a bipartisan consensus exists DOUG FEITH leadership abroad.” around the fact that American Hudson Institute This report is the product of a series leadership still matters: It makes CHRISTOPHER GRIFFIN of working groups among an impres- Foreign Policy Initiative us safer and richer, and sustains sive 16-member steering committee STEPHEN HADLEY and more than two dozen additional an international system that has United States Institute of Peace transformed the world.” scholars, practitioners, and journalists BILL INGLEE from different parties, ideologies, and — Jon Kyl and Joseph Lieberman, ISM Strategies generations. The participants were The Hill ROBERT KAGAN divided into working groups along Brookings Institution issues of security, prosperity, and JACK KEANE principles of freedom, and representa- vibrant international economic sys- Institute for the Study of War tives from various relevant House and tem; and the growing link between HENRY OBERING Senate committees and government the American domestic economy and Booz Allen Hamilton agencies observed the discussions. foreign markets. MICHAEL O’HANLON Brookings Institution Many of the project’s participants The authors state that the disparate helped craft the final report, and the aspects of American global leadership DANIELLE PLETKA American Enterprise Institute authors are briefing US presidential are “intimately connected and often candidates, leaders on Capitol Hill, mutually reinforcing. The genius of GARY SCHMITT American Enterprise Institute and student groups around the country America’s approach is that, no matter about the importance of American how one rearranges the pillars of JAMES TALENT American Enterprise Institute internationalism. American global leadership, the end The report discusses US military result is positive.” leadership; tools of international To read the full report, visit engagement; the importance of www.aei.org/publication/why- committed, democratic partners; our american-leadership-still-matters.

3 AEI Cohosts US Presidential Candidate Forum on Poverty

In partnership with the Jack Kemp Foundation, AEI cohosted a presidential-candidate forum titled “Expanding Opportunity” on Saturday, January 9, in Columbia, South Carolina, focusing exclusively on combating poverty. Six presidential candidates partic- ipated in the substantive discussion on fighting poverty and expanding opportunity in America: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley attended the forum and spoke briefly. The event was moderated by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), with introductory remarks from Arthur Brooks. In his opening remarks, Brooks

said, “Our current crop of 50-year- Photos of the Kemp Forum courtesy of Megan Davis and Tim Fisher. old policies . . . have failed in their true goal—to make poverty more escapable. They have failed because Observers are pointing to the robust work requirements and consis- they rest on an outdated philosophy Kemp Forum as an important step tent income eligibility across programs [that] treats work as a punishment, not for conservatives to show how free (proposed by Robert Doar), and the a blessing. It views poor people fun- enterprise principles create the best promotion of marriage (a major focus damentally as liabilities to manage, opportunity for disadvantaged of AEI’s Brad Wilcox’s work). not assets to develop and unleash.” Americans to succeed. Ron Haskins This forum follows a series of The Kemp Forum drew more than of the Brookings Institution noted, events that AEI scholars have orga- 1,000 attendees and 3,000 online “[This forum] demonstrates a growing nized surrounding the Republican viewers. It was widely covered by commitment among Republican and Democratic presidential debates print and broadcast media, with more politicians to focus attention on during this primary season, including than 20 mentions of the forum on how conservatives would support pre-debate events in Ohio, Nevada, television, including CBS’s Face the policies and programs to help poor and Colorado. Nation, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and kids get ahead.” To watch clips from any of ’s Special Report with Bret Many of the policies proposed by AEI’s 2016 presidential election Baier. Additionally, Brooks and AEI’s the candidates are closely related cycle events, visit www.aei.org Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies to work by AEI scholars, including /feature/2016-presidential- Robert Doar were interviewed by a calls for an expansion of the earned election-cycle. number of top media outlets about the income tax credit (see work by AEI’s substance of the forum. Michael Strain for more on this issue),

4 AEI Scholars Coauthor Major Bipartisan Poverty Report

A major consensus report titled for increasing the earned income tax Opportunity, Responsibility, and credit for childless adult workers, and Security: A Consensus Plan for both Bloomberg View’s editorial board Reducing Poverty and Restoring the and Robert Samuelson of the Washing- American Dream was released in ton Post published favorable reviews. December by the AEI-Brookings The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof Working Group on Poverty and called the report “an excellent plan to Opportunity. reduce poverty” that emphasizes using This report is the result of 14 months data and evidence to help bridge the of work by 15 experts—including political divide on the issue. AEI’s Robert Doar, Michael Strain, AEI and Brookings sent copies of and Lawrence Mead—to identify the report to 30 state secretaries of actionable and politically viable human services and have partnered to solutions that address poverty and disseminate the report to members of lack of opportunity in America. crowd. The New York Times’ David Congress and their staff, state-level pol- The authors identified three moral Brooks keynoted the event, which icymakers, prominent members of the values that they believe all Americans featured remarks from several of the media, and dozens of leaders in AEI’s share—opportunity, responsibility, and report’s authors. The report has been state-based leadership network. security—and show how the group’s covered prominently in a number of To read the report in full, visit 12 recommendations will enable Amer- media outlets, including two segments www.aei.org/publication/opportunity ican citizens to live up to these values. on PBS NewsHour. -responsibility-and-security/. The report was released at a public The editorial board of the Washing- event at the National Press Club on ton Post published an opinion piece December 3 before an overflow endorsing the report’s recommendation

AEI Morgridge Fellow Robert Doar Leads Fight Against Hunger

In November, Robert Doar presented Freedom from Hunger was success- domestic hunger and food insecurity the findings of the National Commis- ful in providing a fuller understanding while protecting the safety net for the sion on Hunger to the House Commit- of the causes of hunger than is often most vulnerable members of society. tee on Agriculture. The final report, seen in reports on this issue and pro- Over a year and half, the commission titled Freedom from Hunger: An Achiev- poses improving a focus on work as traveled to nine cities and heard able Goal for the United States, was the best defense against hunger. testimony from 80 invited experts and released to Congress on January 5. Doar was appointed to the National 102 members of the public, including The report acknowledges that the Commission on Hunger in April 2014 beneficiaries of food assistance, who root causes of hunger are various by then–Speaker of the House John provided advice during hearings, and cannot be solved by a single Boehner. Doar serves as cochair of briefings, and site visits. nutrition assistance program. It also this 10-member group (including To read the full report, visit calls on those outside the government five Democratic and five Republican www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads to take action in their daily lives—an appointees) tasked with identifying /2016/01/Hunger_Commission_ important call not often delivered ways to more effectively use existing Final_Report.pdf. by commissions. programs and funds to address

5 with How can AEI30 be impactful in the Bay area in educating Sam Eckstein young people about the merits of free enterprise? Many of my contemporaries are frustrated by Washington and have Sam Eckstein is a private equity associate at Gryphon become less engaged in politics than Investors in San Francisco. He is also an angel inves- previous generations. Meanwhile, tor in food and beverage start-ups. After graduating young people are flocking to the Bay with a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from area to be a part of this golden age Johns Hopkins University in 2012, Mr. Eckstein was of innovation. AEI’s core mission of a research intern in the Asian studies department at strengthening free enterprise and AEI. He also worked in cross-border mergers and increasing individual opportunity acquisitions at Vermilion Partners, a boutique invest- resonates uniquely here, where the ment bank in Beijing, and in investment banking at Jefferies in New York City. examples of Facebook, Google, Uber, and hundreds of other local start-ups How did you first become have made a powerful impression on “I describe AEI as an intellectual involved with AEI? my generation. I think the challenge community that is guided by the As an undergrad at Johns Hopkins lies less in educating young people studying US policy in China, I tenets of independent thinking, about the merits of free enterprise than regularly encountered research by intellectual rigor, and empirical in inspiring them to reengage in public AEI scholars, from the likes of Nicholas fact-based arguments.” policy with the values they learned in Eberstadt, Desmond Lachman, and the private sector. If we can do that, Dan Blumenthal. Naturally, I applied the Bay area will become the hub for San Francisco is filled with engaged, for an internship at AEI as an under- the leading voices for free enterprise. intelligent, and inquisitive young grad. It took a few tries but eventually people who have taken on an incred- What’s one policy issue about I was hired as an intern in the Asia ible amount of responsibility. It’s an which you think young people Studies Department in the fall of 2012. are particularly misinformed? ideal setting for an AEI30 chapter. I was in my first week of college when Why did you join AEI30 and agree to take a leadership role How do you describe AEI to Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. in launching our San Francisco potential AEI30 members? Most people my age didn’t fully chapter? I describe AEI as an intellectual com- understand what was happening at the After I began working in investment munity that is guided by the tenets of time. The events of 2008 continue to banking in New York, I missed the independent thinking, intellectual rigor, be an area of confusion and mis- atmosphere of scholarship and debate and empirical fact-based arguments. information for many who were grow- that I enjoyed during my experience AEI is engaged in every policy issue ing up during the Great Recession. at AEI. I joined AEI30 so that I could from social welfare to foreign policy. I The mistaken conclusion for most is that continue to be a part of the intellectual emphasize the Institute’s commitment to Wall Street greed brought about the community and engage in important vigorous debate and open inquiry and housing collapse and that the lesson conversations about pressing policy AEI’s unique ability to shape American is to increase government regulation, issues that I didn’t encounter day-to-day public policy through research and when in reality government regulation in the private sector. My experience education that is not constrained by was a major cause of the subprime with the New York City chapter has partisanship. Joining AEI30 means mortgage meltdown. Education around been incredibly rewarding, and I joining a network of preeminent schol- financial regulation is essential to avoid wanted to continue my involvement ars and leaders and having a stronger the next economic crisis and allow the with AEI when I moved out West. voice in today’s political climate. US economy to flourish.

6 AEI Bolsters Its Outreach with Dynamic Videos and Content

AEI Filming Feature-Length quotes; and features such as videos, Documentary on Secrets infographics, and podcasts. of Happiness Arthur Brooks launched a biweekly Right now, on a scale of 1 to 10, informal e-newsletter to coincide with how happy are you? This simple— the release of his latest book, The Conservative Heart. Nearly 4,000 70,000+ yet subversive—question begins the subscribe to AEI’s feature-length documentary currently individuals have subscribed to receive in production by AEI. This film will tell this update on Brooks’ latest work, out- YouTube channel, the story of regular people trying to takes from his New York Times column, and AEI ranks first in build their lives and achieve self- and reactions to what he is reading. monthly video views on actualization in a world that increas- If you are interested in receiving YouTube when compared ingly cherishes materialism above all these e-newsletters or any of AEI’s with other Washington else. Economic freedom, public policy, other regular mailings, you can sub- think tanks. and entrepreneurship are simply means scribe at www.aei.org/newsletters/. to achieve true human flourishing. The Visit www.youtube.com film will feature people from New /user/AEIVideos. York to Mumbai and the persistent poverty of the Dharavi slums to Martin County, Kentucky, where Lyndon John- son announced the Great Society. This spring, AEI will unveil addi- AEI is working closely with Emer- tional video series that will highlight gent Order, a Texas-based production new ideas for how to solve our nation’s company with a proven track record most critical policy problems. Stay of producing highly engaging video tuned to our AEI YouTube channel in products. Filming began in India in the coming weeks. November 2015 and will continue through mid-2016. We anticipate AEI Launches New App distributing the documentary to for iPad Users film festivals in early 2017. Stay AEI Launches New AEI recently launched a new app for tuned for more about this film in the “In 60 Seconds” Video Series iPad users with the latest content from year ahead. AEI scholars are addressing important AEI.org, which you can download in questions across a range of issue areas the Apple iTunes store. For more, visit New AEI E-Newsletters Attract in our new “In 60 Seconds” video www.aei.org/feature/aei-app. Strong Following series. The series launched with schol- AEI recently launched a new e-newslet- ars’ 60-second responses to the politics ter “AEI This Week,” which is delivered and policy in the president’s January to more than 33,000 inboxes every 12 State of the Union address and Saturday morning. The newsletter what we might expect for the includes some of the timeliest work year ahead. To view the videos, visit from AEI, including blog posts, articles, www.aei.org/publication/60-second- and research from the week; selected responses-to-the-state-of-the-union.

7 AEI’s 2016 Summer Honors Program AEI to Host Leadership Network AEI is now accepting applications Summit in April for its 2016 Summer Honors Program in May and June. We will AEI’s external affairs team is currently education reform, and the power admit approximately 200 under- planning the third summit for the of free enterprise. The summit graduate students to six, five-day AEI Leadership Network on April will feature practical training on intensive public policy seminars. 27–29, 2016. The AEI Leadership effective messaging and commun- Students will have the oppor- Network is comprised of leaders from ications, including an “elevator tunity to learn about public policy state-based think tanks, governments, pitch” competition. from AEI scholars and other experts around Washington and about nonprofits, businesses, community If you would like to recommend careers in DC from professionals in organizations, trade associations, someone for the AEI Leadership a variety of fields. The program is and other groups. From panel Network, please contact fully funded and includes housing discussions led by AEI scholars to Rachel Ayerst Manfredi at and a stipend for students. group discussions and site visits, [email protected]. To learn more, visit participants will engage on topics www.aei.org/summer-honors or including poverty alleviation, contact [email protected] with any questions. Students must AEI30 Group Expands to the West Coast apply by March 15, 2016.

AEI is expanding its successful AEI30 opportunity, and strengthening the has regular events with guest organization—piloted in New York free enterprise system. speakers who share career advice City—to San Francisco this year. AEI launched the group in Sep- and experiences in business and AEI30 member Sam Eckstein— tember 2014 to bridge a gap in civic life. AEI30 also offers network- featured in this edition of Q&AEI— our outreach efforts to professionals ing gatherings and other opportun- is leading our efforts to build our in their 20s looking to get engaged ities to connect with mentors and community in San Francisco. in public policy. Members are under AEI scholars. AEI30 is an invitation-only group 30 years old and are chosen based If you would like to recommend of young leaders in business, finance, on depth of intellectual interest in a potential AEI30 member for our and entrepreneurship who are inter- policy, record of achievement, and New York or San Francisco groups, ested in thoughtful discussions about potential for future impact. They invest please contact Corinne Mattern the most significant public policy their philanthropic and intellectual at [email protected] or challenges facing our country and resources in our nonpartisan mission. 202.828.6029. To learn more, who share AEI’s mission of expand- This group—currently 48 members visit www.aei.org/aei30. ing liberty, increasing individual in New York led by four cochairs—

The American Enterprise Institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. AEI’s work is made possible only by the financial backing of those who share our values and support our aims. 1150 Seventeenth Street, NW To learn more about AEI’s scholars and their work, visit www.aei.org. Washington DC 20036 202.862.5800 | www.aei.org To find out how you can invest in our scholars’ work, visit www.aei.org/support.

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