Monday, April 9, 2012

Gingrich's Think Tank Collapses

The health care think tank that Newt Gingrich started nearly a decade ago, The Center for Health Transformation, has filed for bankruptcy.
The Center for Health Transformation had promoted private-sector solutions to America’s skyrocketing health-care costs. It also became a source of significant for Gingrich and his wife, Callista. The Washington Post reported that the center took in $37 million in donations, primarily from big pharmaceutical and health-care corporations, in its eight years in business.
The center had advertised Gingrich as its primary asset, and dues-paying companies such as Astra Zeneca and Blue Cross Blue Shield were offered direct access to the former House speaker and his strategic advice. But when Gingrich announced his plans to run for president last summer, he sold his ownership interest in the group and had to give up his role as chief fundraiser for the center.
Several years ago, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) started his own think tank called The National Council for New America.  Here are the members of that think tank, which has been "in a suspended state" since 2010.

In related think tank/policymaker news, former President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Jean-Claude Trichet has been appointed the head of Bruegel, a Belgium-based organization that is considered the #9 best non-US think tank in the world.