Bill Clinton: Fundraiser-In-Chief for Think Tank CAP

Here is what Politico is reporting:

Former President Bill Clinton is set to headline next month’s annual Center for American Progress fundraiser, putting him in front of a key group of Democratic constituencies and officials as the party heads into the midterms.

Clinton is speaking on May 14, just months after his wife, Hillary Clinton, addressed an event honoring the group’s tenth year in existence.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about Hillary Clinton speaking at CAP's 10th anniversary event.  Here is another previous Think Tank Watch post about CAP founder John Podesta convening meetings for a Hillary run.

CAP was recently ranked as the 30th best think tank in the US by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  CAP was also ranked as the 10th best think tank in the US.

Think Tank Quickies (#119)

• SIPRI says that military spending continues to fall in the West but rises everywhere else.  World military expenditures totaled $1.75 trillion in 2013.
• Advisory Council announced for Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings.
• Qi Ye named Director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center (BTC) for Public Policy.
• Heritage Foundation hires John Mitnick as General Counsel.
• Charles Lake (Aflac), Phillipa McCrostie (EY), and former World Bank President Robert Zoellick named to Board of Directors at PIIE.
• CSIS hosts video conference with President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan.
• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel among those receiving Atlantic Council Honors; John Herbst, former Ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan, named Director of Eurasia Center at ACUS.
• Wilson Center: Will a Mouse Find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?
• Wilson Center's Asia Program to work with Japan's Waseda University.
• Future Tense - a partnership of New America Foundation (NAF), Arizona State University, and Slate magazine - and Tsinghua University, launch new US-China Green Electronics Competition.

Think Tank Salaries - 2014 Update

Who says that the think tank world is not lucrative?

Sure, people at think tanks often complain about low salaries, but many do not realize that think tank heads are often making out like bandits.

In 2012, Think Tank Watch created a salary list of leaders at top think tanks.  Think Tank Watch has now updated that list (see below) to reflect the latest publicly available information.

Please note: Several of the think tank presidents/CEOs listed are no longer with the think tank.  Also, several heads of think tanks may have started in the middle of the year, and thus, their salary does not necessarily reflect an entire year.

• Ed Feulner (Heritage Foundation): $1,162,696

• Richard Haass (Council on Foreign Relations): $890,954

• Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute): $783,449

• Arthur Brooks (American Enterprise Institute): $565,772

• James Poterba (National Bureau of Economic Research): $528,631

• Craig Kennedy (German Marshall Fund): $525,000

• Jessica Matthews (CEIP): $492,263

• Michael Rich (RAND Corp.): $489,066

• Edward Crane (Cato): $466,872

• Strobe Talbott (Brookings): $438,940

• Frederick Kempe (Atlantic Council): $420,000

• Fred Bergsten (Peterson Institute for International Economics): $406,105

• Merrick Carey (Lexington Institute): $386,942

• Jason Grumet (Bipartisan Policy Center): $384,502

• Jane Harman (Wilson Center): $375,000

• John Hamre (CSIS): $368,819

• Sarah Rosen Wartell (Urban Institute): $355,236

• Steve Coll (New American Foundation): $320,815 

• Nancy Birdsall (Center for Global Development): $317,353 

• Philip Sharp (Resources for the Future): $296,277

• Kenneth Weinstein (Hudson Institute): $285,906

• Neera Tanden (Center for American Progress): $254,739

• Ellen Laipson (Stimson Center): $243,657

• Scott Bates (Center for National Policy): $218,366

• Nathaniel Fick (Center for a New American Security): $217,786

• Lawrence Mishel (Economic Policy Institute): $214,349

• Jonathan Cowan (Third Way): $212,801

• Richard Solomon (US Institute of Peace): $196,759

• John Cavanagh (Institute for Policy Studies): $77,757

According to Simply Hired, the average think tank salary is $56,000.  According to SalaryList, the average salary at a think tank is $47,136.  According to Indeed, the average think tank salary is $66,000.

Here are some articles related to think tank salaries:

• New Republic: The Great Think Tank Bubble: Think Tank Salaries are Looking More and More Like Lobbyist Salaries.

• CFNC: A career as a think tank analyst is worth thinking about. 

• Politico: Think tank jobs a lucrative landing spot. 

• Houston Chronicle: How much would you make if you worked at a think tank?

Think Tank Watch is also keeping its eye on the National Think Tank Compensation Survey which is being administered by AKRON, Inc.  They are working with a steering committee from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), American Institutes for Research, and Population Council.

It is also worth noting that base pay of leaders at top think tanks is not wildly different from base pay of leaders at many top colleges and universities.  That said, some heads of top universities have a much higher total compensation than even the highest-paid think tank head.  Here is a look at executive compensation at public and private universities from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Here is a useful link from The NonProfit Times which has, among other things, a chart of average base salary of non-profits by budget size.

Update: Here is an interesting thread about think tank salaries from the site Political Science Rumors.

And here is career guide from 80,000 Hours about working at a think tank, including the pros and cons of think tanking, and which think tanks are most promising to work for.

Transparify: Good Source of Think Tank Information

Transparify, a new initiative coordinated by think tank expert Hans Gutbrod, has some excellent resources for those digging deeply into the world of think tanks.

Most notably, the site has four annotated bibliographies on think tanks:

• Think Tank Transparency
• Think Tank Funding
• How Think Tanks Influence Policy
• Corporate Interests and Think Tanks

Here is Transparify's list of key players in the think tank world.

In early 2014, Transparify conducted the first-ever global rating of the financial transparency of major think tanks, and results will be released soon.

Transparify if funded by the Think Tank Fund of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), a grantmaking operation funded by George Soros.

Brookings Institution Caught in Pension Crossfire

The Brookings Institution is among the well-known nonprofits that receives money from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, a group created by a Texas billionaire and his wife that funds research on the fiscal health of public pensions.

Now, public employee unions, who say that the Foundation is trying to sway public opinion to support replacing public pensions, are taking aim at various entities, including think tanks, that have taken money from the Foundation.

Here is more from The Wall Street Journal:

Union groups are calling on the Washington-based Brookings Institution—which has taken more than $500,000 from the Arnold Foundation from 2012 through this year to produce research on pensions—to cut ties. Spokesman David Nassar said the think tank wouldn't return the grant money and said donors are forbidden from influencing any research.

Brookings scholars have received a research grant of $500,000 for work on "Reforming Public Employee Pensions," and Brookings held an event in February titled "Public Pension Reform: Questions of Politics and Policy."

The WSJ notes that the "confrontation has well-known nonprofits caught between multimillion-member unions and a foundation that is becoming an important voice on the pension issue."

The liberal advocacy group Institute for America's Future recently said that the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is part of an effort to dismantle public pensions.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Think Tank Quickies (#118)

• Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) makes first appearance ever at CSIS.
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) again says Wall Street should disclose its think tank contributions.
• The best free-market think tank conferences.
• Think tankers attend World Bank/IMF spring meeting in Washington, DC.
• Inomics Blog on top think tanks and social research institutes in the US.
• Brookings map: State of the global economy.
• Heritage Foundation now the Business Insider/HuffPo/Gawker/Buzzfeed of think tanks?
• Video via Thomas B. Fordham Institute (education policy think tank): "I'm just a lowly think tank executive."
• Acton Institute's Freedom Flash Drives.
• Brookings happiness/age chart.

Google Masters Think Tank Row

The Washington Post has a new piece about how Google has learned the influence game in Washington, including how to embrace its most powerful think tanks.

The think tanks (and lobbying arm of think tanks) that Google donates to include:

• Brookings Institution
• Aspen Institute
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
• New America Foundation (NAF)
• Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF)
• American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
• American Action Forum
• Mercatus Center
• Cato Institute
• R Street Institute
• Ripon Society
• Free State Foundation
• Heritage Foundation
• Heritage Action
• Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
• Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)

The Post piece details Google's embrace of Heritage and Cato, a conservative and libertarian think tank.  Here is what is said about the Google-Heritage relationship:

An early sign of Google’s new Washington attitude came in September 2011, when executives paid a visit to the Heritage Foundation, the stalwart conservative think tank that has long served as an intellectual hub on the right, to attend a weekly lunch for conservative bloggers...

In their visit to Heritage that day, Google officials were eager to make new friends. Their challenge was instantly clear.

“In 2008, your CEO campaigned for Barack Obama,” said Mike Gonzalez, Heritage’s vice president for communications, according to a video of the event. “. . . As a company, you’re really identified with this administration from the beginning. And you come here and you’re like a mix of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.”

Adam Kovacevich, then a member of Google’s policy team, responded by stressing the company’s interest in building new alliances.

The Google-Heritage relationship soon blossomed — with benefits for both.

A few weeks after the blogger session, Heritage researcher James L. Gattuso penned a critique of the antitrust investigation into Google, praising the company as “an American success story.”

That winter, Heritage joined the chorus of groups weighing in against the anti-piracy legislation. As the bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act, appeared to gain steam in the GOP-led House, Gattuso wrote a piece warning of “unintended negative consequences for the operation of the Internet and free speech.” The legislation, he said, could disrupt the growth of technology. Gattuso said he came to his position independently and was not lobbied by Google.

After Gattuso’s piece went live, Heritage Action, the think tank’s sister advocacy organization, quickly turned the argument into a political rallying cry. In terms aimed at tea party conservatives, the group cast the bill as “another government power grab.”

 As congressional offices were flooded with phone calls and e-mail protests, support for the legislation crumbled. Within days, both the House and Senate versions of the bill were shelved and Hill veterans were left marveling at the ability of Google and its allies to muster such a massive retail response.

For Google and Heritage, the legislative victory was the beginning of a close relationship. A few months later, Google Ideas and the Heritage Foundation co-hosted an event focused on the role the Internet could play in modernizing Cuba, featuring Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Google Ideas director Jared Cohen.

The following year, a new name popped up on Google’s list of groups it supports financially: Heritage Action.

Here is what the Post piece says about the Google-Cato relationship:

On a February night this year, Schmidt sat down with a Washington audience far friendlier than the panel of senators who had grilled him nearly three years earlier. Addressing a dinner of journalists and scholars at the libertarian Cato Institute, Schmidt received applause and lots of head-nodding as he declared, “We will not collaborate with the NSA.”

Cato was not always in sync with Google’s policy agenda. In previous years, the think tank’s bloggers and scholars had been sharply critical of the company’s support for government rules limiting the ways providers such as Comcast and Verizon could charge for Internet services.

But, like many institutions in Washington, Cato has since found common ground with Google.

And the think tank has benefited from the company’s investments, receiving $480,000 worth of in-kind “ad words” from Google last year, according to people familiar with the donation.

Here is an infographic from the Washington Post piece that allows one to explore Google's influence in Washington (including think tank funding) over time.

Google actually has its own think tank, called Google Ideas.  Here are the reasons you didn't know Google has its own think tank.

To update that Washington Post piece about Google's think tank, Google Ideas does indeed have its own website now.

Troubles Brewing at Top Think Tank SIPRI?

Trouble seems to be brewing at one of the world's top think tanks - Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

There are suggestions floating around that the work environment at the Stockholm, Sweden-based think tank is so bad that it could actually be closed. [SIPRI, founded in 1966, also has offices in Beijing and Washington, DC.]

This is from one post (Think Tank Watch could not immediately verify the authenticity of the content):

Many employees at peace research institute SIPRI are suffering from stress, sleeping problems, anxiety, high blood pressure and suicidal thoughts, according to [trade unions] ST and SACO-S [which organize around 85% of the employees at SIPRI.] The trade unions have therefore put the foundation under so called special protection measures.

"If the demands are not met, the workplace could be closed," said ST Press Secretary Sofia Johansson.

She states that the special protection measures involve demands for systematic efforts to improve the work environment, and to deal with specific identified problems.

According to the union, employees at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, which employs about 50 people at its Solna office, have experienced degrading and discriminatory treatment, and there have been no improvements since the previous work environment survey.

Here is a letter from the Swedish trade union ST describing the situation in a bit more detail.  It says, among other things, that there have been 25 cases of staff turnover in the past year, out of a total of around 50 employees.  Some details:

ST and SACO-S organize around 85% of the employees at SIPRI. We have been contacted by the local elected officials about an unsustainable work environment situation that has gone on for the past year and has now escalated. We believe that the employer has breached its responsibility to carry out systematic Work Environment Work according to AFS 2001:01 and has not observed its rehabilitation responsibilities under the Social Insurance Code 2010110. Despite the fact that the employer has been aware of the problem they have not taken forward appropriate measures and the work environment has powerfully worsened.

We are deeply concerned about the work environment situation at SIPRI and demand today that Special Protective Measures be taken forward in accordance with Chapter 6 Section 6 of the Work Environment Law. This may also involve us closing the workplace since there is a danger to our members’ life and health. We would like to draw particular attention to the fact that there is more than one person at SIPRI with suicidal thoughts. This is alarming, and if it is not dealt with in a professional manner, we fear that it could become a bigger catastrophe than what happened in Krokom municipality.[1]

During a joint meeting with ST and SACO-S members on April 2nd, we carried out a simple work environment survey using a 12-question questionnaire. Our goal was to gain an understanding of how the work environment at SIPRI operates, and to try to understand the problems. Below is a summary of the results. There were 26 respondents to the survey.

- 16 of the 26 respondents states that they had experienced degrading or discriminatory treatment in various forms. Of these, 14 stated that the Director had behaved in an intimidating manner.

- 22 of the 26 respondents suffer from stress-related problems (manifesting itself in for example sleep problems, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, miscarriage, high blood pressure, pressure in the chest, and others). These cases are directly related to the Director’s treatment of staff

- 23 of the 26 choose to a great extent to work from home whenever possible because of the work environment at the workplace, rather than to take sick leave.

- 24 of the 25 have experienced no improvement since the last work environment survey, but rather the opposite.

- All 26 respondents are actively seeking other employment due to the work environment at SIPRI (some are ready to resign even if they don’t have a new job).

Of the 25 cases of staff turnover in the past year, out of around 50 total employees, several of the terminated employments can be directly linked to the Director’s actions.

The letter goes on to say that the director of SIPRI is the main source of the work environment problem at the think tank.

Think Tank Watch could not immediately identify the authenticity or content of the letter, which Think Tank Watch first saw thanks to the kind tip by think tank expert Hans Gutbrod.

SIPRI is probably most well-known for its annual SIPRI Yearbook which details armaments, disarmament, and international security issues.

SIPRI was just ranked as the 5th best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  It was also ranked as the 3rd best non-US think tank.

Sugar Baron Leans on Brookings to Influence US-Cuba Policy

Alfonso Fanjul, owner of the vast sugar and real estate conglomerate Fanjul Corp., wants to invest in Cuba and its sugar industry, and he has turned to the influential think tank Brookings Institution for help.

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Fanjul visited Cuba in April 2012 and again in February 2013 as part of a delegation licensed through the Brookings Institution, the Washington think tank that has produced recent papers criticizing U.S. policy and calling on the Obama administration to further loosen sanctions.

Fanjul’s Brookings-organized trips coincided with calls by President Raúl Castro to rapidly revive Cuba’s moribund sugar industry.  Fanjul said his visits were unrelated to Castro’s sugar initiative.

Fanjul joined the Brookings board this past July and has donated at least $200,000 to the think tank, which has hosted Cuban officials for panel discussions geared toward encouraging greater communication and loosened restrictions on doing business with Cuba. Ted Piccone, Brookings’ acting vice president and foreign policy program director, wrote an open memo to Obama last month urging him to use his executive authority to give direct aid to entrepreneurs on the island and expand travel licenses.

Here is the list of the Brookings Board of Trustees, of which Fanjul is a member.  His election to the Board was announced on July 19, 2013.

Here is a recent Brookings piece by Nonresident Senior Fellow Richard Feinberg on Cuba's new investment law.

Here is a link to a Brookings event from late 2012 titled "What Roles for Foreign Direct Investment in the New Cuban Economy."

For years, scholars at Brookings have argued that the "usefulness" of US's embargo on Cuba has run its course.

According to the latest University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings, Cuba has 18 think tanks.  A variety of other Caribbean islands have think tanks, including Antigua & Barbuda (2 think tanks), Bahamas (2), Dominica (3), Dominican Republic (28), Grenada (1), Jamaica (6), Martinique (2), Puerto Rico (5), St. Kitts-Nevis (1), St. Vincent & the Grenadines (1), and Trinidad & Tobago (10).

Think Tank Quickies (#117)

• Billionaire Tom Steyer: Starting a think tank network as big as that of the Koch brothers?
• WSJ: Michael Mandelbaum's new book on globalization focuses on "establishment view" of globalization, most frequently citing Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).
• Senior Obama official on John Podesta: "He has the ball-breaking skills of Rahm Emanuel and the policy chops that come with running the Center for American Progress."
• WPost: While head of CAP, John Podesta urged White House officials to appoint a senior adviser to tackle climate change and energy policy.
• NYTimes on Jim DeMint shifting Heritage from policy to politics.
• The boom of think tanks in a changing Arab world.
• Salman Shaikh of Brookings: Think Tanks - A Social Good for the Global Community.
• Neoconservative think tank influences on US policy.
• James Carafano of Heritage Foundation: "When I come to work each day I don't think like I am part of a powerful think tank but a hungry start-up pushing the envelope."
• Bobby Jindal's "pocket think tank," America Next.

Think Tank Fact of the Day: CEIP Alumni

Think Tank Watch was reading through a Washington Post Magazine piece on United Nations (UN) Ambassador Samantha Power, and noticed a line saying that she was an intern at the think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP).

On its website, CEIP has a section titled "Notable Alumni," which includes Ms. Power.  [She reportedly got the position right after graduating from college.]  Others on CEIP's list include:

• Marcel Lettre, President Obama's Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (PDUSDI).

• George Stephanopoulos, anchor on ABC's Good Morning America and This Week, and former Senior Adviser to President Bill Clinton.

• Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Obama Administration.

• Evan Medeiros, Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC).

CEIP was recently ranked as the 3rd best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  It was ranked as the 2nd best think tank in the United States, after the Brookings Institution.

2016 GOP Hopefuls Tap Think Tanks

As jockeying begins for the 2016 US presidential race, potential Republican candidates are quietly meeting with think tank experts to tap their knowledge, acquire future policy advisors, and gain an edge over their competitors.

Today, The Washington Post  details how a variety of Republican hopefuls are cozying up to think tanks.  Here is a look at which think tank experts potential candidates are talking to:

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) met Stephen Moore, Chief Economist at the Heritage Foundation, last Monday night at Washington's Capital Grille for a dinner that lasted four hours.

• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently invited former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Holtz-Eaken, President of American Action Forum, to his office.  Sen. Rubio regularly solicits advice from scholars at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  Rubio says that AEI is the "primary organization" that he turns to.  He reportedly confers with AEI President Arthur Brooks and AEI columnist/blogger James Pethokoukis.  Heritage Foundation's Stephen Moore has also advised Rubio.  Yuval Levin, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has apparently become friendly with Rubio.

• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been consulting with Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) President Richard Haass.

• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker met in California last year with scholars at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, including former White House economic adviser John B. Taylor and former Romney policy director Lanhee Chen.  Gov. Walker has also developed a bond with AEI Fellow Marc Thiessen.

• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is close to Hudson Institute social policy analyst William Schambra.  In March, Rep. Ryan had dinner with Douglas Holtz-Eaken, President of American Action Forum.

• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has received feedback about his health care plan from AEI Visiting Fellow Ramesh Ponnuru and Yuval Levin, Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  Gov. Jindal also has been courting Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint.

• Texas Governor Rick Perry has been getting briefings from think tank experts.

• Heritage scholars, including national security specialist James Carafano and former Sen. Jim Talent have become a "faculty of sorts" for potential Republican candidates.

The Washington Post article does not mention it, but AEI President Arthur Brooks has a close relationship with Rep. Paul Ryan, as noted in a recent Think Tank Watch post.

American Enterprise Institute's Stock Continues to Rise

Another day, another positive story on American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  This time it is from a Newsweek piece written by Pema Levy titled "Arthur Brook's Push to Make the American Enterprise Institute - and Republicans - Relevant Again."

Here are some of Think Tank Watch's favorite passages:

• AEI is on the rise. Its influence is growing on Capitol Hill, where Brooks, a former musician and college professor, is now a sought-after counsel to Republicans like House Budget Committee chairman and presidential hopeful Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Earlier this year, Brooks delivered the keynote address at both House and Senate GOP retreats.

• On Capitol Hill, that message [of "capitalism for the masses"] sounds very similar to the one preached by [Rep. Paul] Ryan, who plans to roll out a comprehensive antipoverty agenda this year. Ryan's office works closely with AEI and the two men are friends.

• Brooks rattles through the investments AEI has made in the past five years, including hiring over 60 new people. The new headquarters will have TV and radio studios and classrooms, as AEI ramps up its media presence and extends its reach to college campuses, paid for in part by a $20 million donation from billionaire Daniel A. D'Aniello, chairman of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group. "We've grown like crazy," Brooks says, before making the noise of an explosion.

• But in the free marketplace of ideas, as in all markets, it always helps when your competitors stumble. It's no coincidence that AEI's newfound popularity comes at a time of waning influence for another D.C. think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

• [Arthur] Brooks's model is aggressive outreach. AEI has made investments in its communications department and Capitol Hill outreach. The metrics by which you might calculate success-newspaper op-eds, scholars testifying before Congress-have gone up exponentially under Brooks.

• In some ways, [Arthur] Brooks is an unlikely conservative leader. He was raised in a liberal family in Seattle, and dropped out of college to spend his 20s as a professional French hornist, including several years in the Barcelona city orchestra.

 Here is what the article says about other conservative think tanks besides AEI and Heritage:

In the conservative ecosystem, heavyweight institutions funded by rich donors (AEI has about 1,200) compete. Among them is the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., where Republican stars like former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are fellows.

There's the Manhattan Institute, a conservative outpost in liberal New York City, the Hudson Institute in D.C., mostly focusing on national security and foreign policy, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center that punches above its weight when it comes to influence. And there is the Cato Foundation, a libertarian think tank, which has blossomed since that philosophy became more in vogue among Republicans.

Here is a recent Think Tank Watch piece titled "AEI President's Powerful Friends," which focuses on Arthur Brooks's strong relationship with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA).

AEI was just ranked as the 24th best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  It was also ranked as the 11th best think tank in the US.

Think Tank Quickies (#116)

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke at Claremont Institute's annual Winston Churchill dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
• CAP Senior Fellow Matt Miller on why he's running for Congress.
• Jon Lieber, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's tax and economic adviser, and former researcher at AEI, joins startup Thumbtack to connect consumers and service providers.
• Washington Post on CAP: The [Obama] Administration's "off-campus think tank."
• Open letter organized by Economic Policy Institute (EPI) signed by dozens of top economists calling for higher minimum wage.
• Aspen Institute president Walter Isaacson inducted into Alfalfa Club as newest "sprout."
• Karen Dynan of Brookings still waiting to be confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Treasury (hearing held January 30, 2014).
• Accused mastermind behind the "Silk Road" Ross Ulbricht (i.e., Dread Pirate Roberts) has fondness for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a paleolibertarian think tank.
• CAP's ThinkProgress highlights climate change impact with post on Chipotle guacamole price increase. 
• Fact of the day: The term "Super Zips" was coined by AEI scholar/author Charles Murray.  It describes the country's most prosperous, highly educated demographic cluster.