Brookings Press Blog

"Primary Politics" author argues “Health care could help climate bill” on Politico.com

2010-04-09T15:40:25-04:00

Conventional wisdom has it that the angry and protracted health care debate killed the chances of a climate change bill. Neither side has the energy or the will to come back to the table, according to this view. But Primary Politics author and U.S. Climate Task Force co-chair Elaine Kamarck takes a contrarian view. “While everyone was focused on health care, environmental and energy legislation advocates had time to rethink their policy,” she contends. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are among those outlining new proposals. As a result, Kamarck concludes, “Chances have now increased substantially that, in spite of everything, a climate bill can be passed.”

- Read “Health care could help climate bill.”

- Learn more about Primary Politics.

“Shooting Up” Author Analyzes Mexico’s Strategy for Winning the Drug War

2010-03-29T14:25:38-04:00

Mexico’s drug war has claimed more than 18,000 lives in the past three years. Two weeks ago, the wave of violence took a new turn, as gunmen in Ciudad Juárez carried out deadly attacks on American consular employees and their families for the first time. Nonetheless, argues Shooting Up author and Brookings fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown, “a more effective Mexican anti-drug strategy, supported by U.S. assistance, is finally underway.” Writing in The Daily Beast, Felbab-Brown notes that the Mexican government has moved from focusing on decapitating drug cartels to a multifaceted response that seeks to dismantle entire networks while increasing investment in public goods and social services. “Such bonds between the community and the state are what at the end of the day will allow the state to prevail over the cartels,” she concludes.

- Read "How to Win Mexico’s Drug War.”

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Watch Beth Noveck’s Long Now Foundation seminar online

2010-03-17T13:57:54-04:00

Wiki Government author Beth Noveck’s March 4 seminar at The Long Now Foundation can now be viewed at FORA.tv. A full transcript of her remarks is also available. Noveck, who serves as deputy chief technology officer for open government in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, was recently chosen as one of the “Federal 100” by Federal Computer Week. In her Long Now seminar, she discusses the history of the patent system, the genesis of Peer-to-Patent, the Obama administration’s Open Government initiative, and more broadly, the implications of new technology for thinking about democracy. She also responds to questions on such topics as transparency and secrecy in government.

- Watch the seminar.

- Learn more about Wiki Government.

- Read about the Open Government initiative.

Chad Bown, Author of SELF-ENFORCING TRADE, Quoted in The Economist

2010-02-17T14:30:00-05:00

China is the world’s largest exporter and as the country’s exports have grown, so has the number of disagreements with its trading partners. An article in The Economist on the rising number of disputes that China has brought to the World Trade Organization says that it is a good thing that Beijing and other emerging markets are turning to the WTO to settle disputes instead of retaliating on their own. But can the WTO’s dispute settlement system cool mounting tensions with China?

Chad Bown, author of Self-Enforcing Trade, argues “that America or the EU may still find disputes with China tricky. Countries often threaten to target their retaliation against politically-sensitive products, hoping that their manufacturers will convince their own governments to change course. But this sort of strategy may be more difficult in a dispute with undemocratic China.”

- Read the full article.

- Learn more about Self-Enforcing Trade.

On Economist.com, PRIMARY POLITICS Author Elaine Kamarck Debates the Obama Administration’s Record with Cato’s David Boaz

2010-02-10T16:31:51-05:00

In an online Oxford-style debate moderated by The Economist’s Washington correspondent Robert Guest, Elaine Kamarck is currently arguing against the motion, “This house believes that Barack Obama is failing.” Kamarck notes that public trust in government has declined as dissatisfaction with job creation efforts, banking reform, and mortgage assistance programs has grown. The president has also failed to rally the public to his side in the debate over health care reform.

“Obama's first-year troubles,” she says, “were entirely predictable. In fact, in November 2008, my colleague William Galston and I did exactly that. In a long article titled ‘Change You Can Believe in Needs a Government You Can Trust,’ we reviewed the decades of data from the American public showing a severe and persistent lack of trust in the federal government. This lack of trust is an especially difficult problem for a Democratic president with an activist and progressive agenda.”

Nonetheless, Kamarck argues, the administration is now on the right path: “The fix began in the State of the Union address. I carefully watched the clock. It took 40 minutes for him to even mention the words ‘health care.’ And in the 40 minutes before that he talked of nothing but the economy and jobs. The State of the Union was a recalibration of his presidency that will limit his losses in the midterm elections to within the normal range and guarantee his re-election….Obama got the most important message when he said, ‘We face a deficit of trust—deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.’ This is not a man who will fail. This is a man who will learn and thrive.”

- Join the live debate.

- Read David Brooks’s take on “politics in the age of distrust.”

- Learn more about Primary Politics.

Yegor Gaidar Passes Away at Age 53

2010-02-09T17:24:31-05:00

Author of Collapse of an Empire was architect of Russian economy’s "shock therapy"

Yegor Gaidar, the intellectual force behind Russia’s "shock therapy” "conomic reforms of the 1990s, passed away on December 16 at the age of 53.

While still only in his mid-30s, Gaidar launched a wave of hugely important privatization reforms as a key adviser to then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin, starting in 1992. The success and legacy of these reforms are still fiercely debated. Some say they saved the country in the long-term, but the immediate dislocation and economic turmoil that they ignited earned Gaidar the lasting enmity of many rank-and-file Russians.

In his later years, Gaidar published a book warning Russia to reverse its Putin-era nostalgia for the Communist era. Published first in Russian, and in English by Brookings in 2007, the book explained why he was convinced that the Soviet economic system was unsustainable and doomed to fail from the start rather than a potentially successful form ruined by individual policies or a few inadequate officials. The Putin regime even seemed to be pursuing some of the same strategies that had essentially bankrupted the Soviet states, such as relying disproportionately on volatile energy markets to float other parts of an economy more fragile than many wanted to believe. In Collapse of an Empire, Gaidar implored his countrymen to save Russia by looking into the future rather than peering backward.

- Read more about Yegor Gaidar’s life and death.

- Learn more about Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia.

SHOOTING UP Author Discusses Afghanistan on PRI’s “To the Point”

2010-02-02T13:46:18-05:00

Vanda Felbab-Brown recently warned about the risks associated with reaching out to the Taliban in a conversation with “To the Point” host Warren Olney. "There is real danger for the [Obama] administration to signal that they do not believe the military offensive, the multi-faceted surge will make a difference," said Felbab-Brown. "And thereby engaging in strategic negotiations with the Taliban leadership that was responsible for the al Qaeda safe-haven, that will be associated with 9-11, really leaves the administration vulnerable to charges of being soft on protecting US homeland."
Other participants in the program include Lieutenant General Nick Parker, deputy commander under General Stanley McChrystal for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan; ISAF special adviser Sarah Chayes; and Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid.
- Hear the discussion on “To the Point.”
- Read Felbab-Brown's reaction to the State of the Union.
- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Following the SOTU, Daniel Gitterman Analyzes the Democrats’ Dilemma on Tax Relief

2010-01-29T14:16:00-05:00

The economy was the centerpiece of President Obama’s first State of the Union address, delivered on Wednesday. As the president noted, “This recession has compounded the burdens that America's families have been dealing with for decades–-the burden of working harder and longer for less; of being unable to save enough to retire or help kids with college.”

Later in his speech, the president explained some of his administration’s efforts to target this problem: “That's why last year I asked Vice President Biden to chair a task force on middle-class families. That's why we're nearly doubling the child care tax credit, and making it easier to save for retirement by giving access to every worker a retirement account and expanding the tax credit for those who start a nest egg. That's why we're working to lift the value of a family's single largest investment–-their home.”

These are likely to be popular proposals, but they also highlight the return of what Boosting Paychecks author Daniel Gitterman calls “the Democrats’ dilemma”—choosing between targeting tax relief to working poor families who need it most or targeting it to moderate- and middle-income families who make up a much larger share of the electorate and who are also facing tough times.

Commenting on Wednesday’s speech, Gitterman, who serves as a senior policy adviser to North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, noted:

“In 1993, Clinton expanded the EITC for working poor and moderate income families; after the 1994 Republican takeover, it was all about middle-income families.

“Obama is walking the same walk: Obama ‘08 recognized that ensuring affordable child care is critical to helping working parents get ahead. His plan was to reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit on the first $6,000 of child care expenses. This would benefit 7.5 million working mothers.

“Obama ‘10, in his State of the Union, called on Congress to nearly double the child care credit for families earning less than $85,000—which would lower by $900 the taxes such families owe to the government. But the credit would not be refundable, meaning that low-income families would not get cash payments if they owe no individual income taxes.

"It’s the Democrats’ dilemma redux.”

- See the full text of the State of the Union.

- Find more details on the administration’s middle-class agenda.

- Learn more about Boosting Paychecks.

Brookings Named Number One Think Tank

2010-01-29T10:28:00-05:00

In the recently released 2009 Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings, the Brookings Institution was again rated as the number one think tank in both the United States and the world. Brookings also received the highest ranking in the categories of “Most Innovative Policy/Idea Proposal,” “Outstanding Policy Oriented–Public Policy Research Program,” “International Development,” and “Domestic Economic Policy” and finished near the top in almost every category. The think tank index is compiled by James G. McGann, director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Brookings Press is proud to disseminate the research of the top think tank through books and journals. The Press also distributes the books of a number of other top-rated think tanks including Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Center for Global Development, Centre for European Policy Studies, Chatham House, and Council on Foreign Relations.

- Check out the 2009 Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings.

- Read about the event where the rankings were released.

- Learn about the forthcoming books from the Brookings Press in our Spring 2010 catalog.

Counterinsurgency Expert Vanda Felbab-Brown Quoted in the New York Times

2010-01-28T09:36:00-05:00

Should the Afghan government reach out to the Taliban? No, says, Shooting Up author and Brookings fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown: “The more there is talk of negotiation, the more the Taliban view it as a sign of weakness. How do you make sure the reconciliation process does not embolden the Taliban to go on the march?” But Richard C. Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is said to be "privately receptive" to the idea.

- Read the New York Times article.

- Listen to the podcast of a recent discussion of Shooting Up with Felbab-Brown, Brookings vice president Martin Indyk, and Wendy Chamberlin, former ambassador to Pakistan and president of the Middle East Institute.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.