Think Tankers Advising Joe Biden on Economy

The New York Times (NYT) recently had a piece on who presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is turning to for advice on the economy, and a handful of think tankers and those with close ties to think tanks were named.

NYT says that his regular briefings are by a small group of liberal economists and other with roots in the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.  Here is more:

Mr. Biden is now seeking input from more than 100 left-leaning economists and other researchers, but there is little clarity on who has true influence. The Biden campaign recently formed an economic policy committee, which includes these outside experts, and imposed strict rules to ensure their public silence. 

Conversations with policy experts close to the Biden campaign suggest that Mr. Biden has thus far leaned on a core group of advisers who roughly match his own ideological standing within a Democratic Party that has steadily moved left since Barack Obama won the White House in 2008. Mr. Biden appears to have widened that group to include some of the young and sharply progressive thinkers who drove the policy debate leftward during much of the 2020 Democratic primary campaign.

Campaign officials refused multiple requests to detail Mr. Biden’s economic brain trust. They did confirm that Mr. Biden receives regular briefings from a group of advisers that includes at least three liberal economists who are firmly rooted in the party’s Washington establishment: Jared Bernstein and Ben Harris, two former chief economists for Mr. Biden from his time in the White House, and Heather Boushey, who was the top economist for Mrs. Clinton’s transition team when she was the Democratic nominee in 2016.

Jared Bernstein is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Ben Harris served as a Senior Research Associate with the Urban Institute and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center after leaving the Obama Administration, and Heather Boushey is President, CEO, and Co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

Another person giving Biden advice on economic issues, Lawrence Summers, chairs the board of the Center for Global Development (CGD).  He is also an advisor to The Hamilton Project (an economic initiative of the Brookings Institution), The Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy (also at Brookings), and the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).  He is also a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP).

Byron Auguste, another person mentioned in the article, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a board member of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.  Indivar Dutta-Gupta was a Senior Policy Advisor at CBPP and was a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow and then a consultant to the Poverty Task Force at CAP.

Jake Sullivan, who reportedly joins in on some of the economic talks, used to work for former Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

Another economic adviser is Jack Lew, a former Treasury Secretary in the Obama Administration.  He is a member of CFR and on the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project advisory board.

Although not mentioned in the article, Anthony Blinken, a top foreign policy advisor to Biden, previously served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Joe Biden himself has two think tank-like entities that are housed within universities: the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania.  Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has called for an investigation of the latter, citing concerns about accusations of undisclosed donations from Chinese sources.

Twitter Worked With Think Tank to Delete Accounts Tied to Chinese Gov't

Here is more from CNN:

Twitter announced Thursday that it had shut down more than 170,000 accounts tied to the Chinese government. Experts working with Twitter who reviewed the accounts said they pushed deceptive narratives around the Hong Kong protests, COVID-19, and other topics.

The company said the accounts were "spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China" and were removed for violating its platform manipulation policies.

Twitter is officially blocked in China, though many people in the country are able to access it using a VPN. Among the targets of the Chinese campaign were overseas Chinese "in an effort to exploit their capacity to extend the party-state's influence," according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a group Twitter worked with to analyze the accounts. Twitter said the accounts tweeted "predominantly in Chinese languages."

On June 12, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) issued a report analyzing what is says is a "persistent, large-scale influence campaign linked to Chinese state actors" on Twitter and Facebook.

At the end of the report, it notes that ASPI's work is supported by defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Thales, and Naval Group (although it is unclear if those were the entities that supported this specific research).

Other ASPI donors include Northrop Grumman, Jacobs, MBDA, SAAB, Raytheon Australia, and Austal.  It also receives money from the US State Department.

Sponsors to the think tank's International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) include Microsoft, Amazon, Google, National Archives of Australia (NAA), and the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC).

A larger list of funders, which include the Embassy of Japan and Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECRO), can be found in its most recent annual report here.

The Global Times, published by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, recently slammed ASPI for "hyping up anti-China issues."

In March, ASPI said it has one of the largest concentrations of Chinese-language speakers in any think tank in Australia.

In February, the Australian Financial Review said ASPI has "become a flashpoint in the breakdown of consensus in Beijing."

Canberra-headquartered ASPI was founded in 2001 and has a staff of 55 in full-time, part-time, and "casual" positions.

Police Think Tank Gets Flooded With Cash

It is a good time to be a think tank focusing on police reform.

Last year, the New York-based Center for Policing Equity (CPE) said it would get $30 million from The Audacious Project to expand its COMPSTAT for Justice project, a data tool that tracks police behavior to help law enforcement agencies reduce racial disparities in policing.

Launched in April 2018 and housed at TED, The Audacious Project pools philanthropic support from a leading group of individuals and organizations and gives it to social entrepreneurs and nonprofits with bold ideas.  CPE was one of eight projects funded in 2019 from a field of 1,500 applications.

In May 2020, Google's YouTube said it would donate $1 million to CPE, and in early June, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he had donated $1 million to the think tank.  Luggage company Away and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi have also said they will be donating to CPE.

Here is CPE's five-step policy action plan for policing in America.

Atlantic Council Promoting D-10 Alliance Alongside UK

It has recently been reported that the United Kingdom (UK) is lobbying aggressively to form an alliance of ten democracies with the goal of avoiding reliance on Chinese technology such as 5G.  The so-called "D-10" grouping would include the G-7 countries as well as Australia, India, and South Korea.

That idea has actually been promoted for years by US think tank Atlantic Council, which initiated a D-10 Strategy Forum in 2014.  The think tank coordinates annual D-10 meetings that are hosted by the foreign ministries of participating D-10 countries.  Last year's meeting was held in Berlin, and this year's meeting will be held virtually.

Separately, the Atlantic Council also convenes the D-10 Ambassadors Roundtable, which brings together Washington, DC-based ambassadors for a regular series of consultations on global challenges.

It is important to note that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) gave more than $1 million to Atlantic Council in 2018, the latest year for which contribution data is available.

A spokesman for the think tank said that the grant from the UK is for its work on disinformation via its Digital Forensic Research Laboratory.  Atlantic Council also received $3,000 from the FCO in 2019 to support its work for the UK-hosted NATO policy planning talks.

Here is more from Foreign Policy:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been actively considering the right idea: consolidating a new D-10 group of 10 leading democracies (the current G-7 members, plus South Korea, India, and Australia) for addressing both 5G mobile communications and vulnerable supply chains. While the idea behind a D-10 is not a novel one—a group organized by the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington has been promoting it for years with regular working-level meetings between officials—it has a new impetus amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Ash Jain, a Senior Fellow with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, oversees the Atlantic Council's Democratic Order Initiative and D-10 Strategy Forum.

Atlantic Council notes that the D-10 construct has its origins in a US State Department policy planning staff initiative launched in 2008.

Think Tanks Could Get Boost from Pledge by Top Foundations

While many think tanks have lost significant funding revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic downturn, some policy shops may actually benefit from a move by several major foundations to redouble efforts to fund nonprofits.

Here is more from the New York Times:

The Ford Foundation plans to announce on Thursday that it will borrow $1 billion so that it can substantially increase the amount of money it distributes. To raise the money, the foundation — one of the country’s most well-known and oldest charitable organizations — is preparing to issue a combination of 30- and 50-year bonds, a financial maneuver common among governments and companies but extremely rare among nonprofit groups.

Four other leading charitable foundations will pledge on Thursday that they will join with Ford and increase their giving by at least $725 million.

The decision by the five influential foundations — major sponsors of social justice organizations, museums and the arts and environmental causes — could shatter the charitable world’s deeply entrenched tradition of fiscal restraint during periods of economic hardship. That conservatism has provoked anger that foundations, which benefit from generous federal tax breaks, are hoarding billions of dollars during a national emergency, more interested in safeguarding their endowments than in helping those in need.

The four other foundations are among America’s most storied: the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The MacArthur and Doris Duke foundations plan to issue bonds. Mellon and Kellogg are still working out their financing plans.

All five of those foundations contribute generously to think tanks.  For example, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has recently given grants to the Aspen Institute, East-West Center, and World Resources Institute (WRI).

The MacArthur Foundation has given to nearly every major US think tank, including the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Aspen Institute, Atlantic Council, Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Cato Institute, Center for American Progress (CAP), Center for Global Development (CGD), Center for National Policy (CNP), Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Hudson Institute, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Middle East Institute (MEI), Migration Policy Institute (MPI), New America, R Street Institute, Resources for the Future (RFF), Stimson Center, Truman Center for National Policy, US Institute of Peace (USIP), Urban Institute, Wilson Center, and World Resources Institute (WRI).

Think Tank Watch should also point at that think tanks are starting to consider raiding their endowments at a faster pace.

Think Tank Quickies (#379)

• Think tank scholars attended Mike Pompeo's "Madison dinners." 
• Absent influencers?  Women in European think tanks. 
• Middle East Institute (MEI) opens up think tank to support DC protestors.
• Public Citizen: Hudson Institute opposes affordable vaccines, took $300k from industry.
• Flashback: John Goodman launches first-of-its-kind virtual think tank (Goodman Institute).
• US think tank seeks to repeal secret deal and delist Chinese stocks.
• 18 states fight conservative think tank effort to freeze fuel efficiency standards. 
• German think tank guide (SWP is the "Mercedes Benz" of European think tanks). 
• Appraising the epistemic performance of social systems: The case of think tank evaluations.
• Build a better blob full of think tankers.

Defense Think Tank on Verge of Collapse?

Here is more from Forbes:

A few days ago, the cash-strapped non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a “premier institution for understanding the future of international competition and conflict,” announced the appointment of a new Senior Fellow, Dr. Chris Bassler. A former Chief Strategy Officer for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office, Bassler will need to hit the ground running because CSBA, despite this new appointment, is steadily losing money, people and influence.

According to tax documents filed by the think tank, CSBA’s balance sheet is in dire straits, and, over the past few months, many researchers, including a number of maritime researchers that made CSBA a buzz-worthy center of innovation in maritime strategy, have departed for more secure, albeit more ideologically charged institutions.

CSBA’s troubles put a number of efforts to facilitate engagement between Washington’s national security stakeholders at risk. While it will be unfortunate for the Department of Defense if CSBA is unable to right the ship, CSBA’s slow-motion collapse is an opportunity for other institutions to move forward and seize a prestigious D.C. niche in the non-partisan engagement and influencing of key Washington national security stakeholders.

To obscure the departure of senior researchers, CSBA has taken something of a page from the gig economy, bulking up their shrinking staff page with 11 Uber-like “Non-Resident Senior Fellows.” CSBA’s big cadre of Non-Resident Senior Fellows appear to only be loosely associated with the think-tank, and, in the main, Non-Resident Senior Fellows are either in the process of departing CSBA or have full-time jobs elsewhere, supporting CSBA on the side. Ironically, one of the five Senior Fellows listed on CSBA’s website (as of early June), is a non-resident, living near Monterey, California. 

The author of the piece, Craig Hooper, suggests that the US Navy has leaned heavily on CSBA to amplify its work and may have to rethink its think tank strategy.  Among other things, he suggests that the "center of Washington's technical maritime debate" could move to the Hudson Institute.

Others that could benefit from CSBA's decline include the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the US Naval Institute.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about a major CSBA shakeup that took place in 2015.

Cato Institute Vandalized in DC Protests

Think tanks were already struggling with the COVID-19 crisis, and now they are facing even more problems amid the protests in Washington, DC.

Here are some pictures of the Cato Institute, including one with tanks outside the libertarian think tank:

Think tanks outside a think tank https://t.co/odZp1Zc2X3

— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) June 2, 2020

Another showing a broken window at Cato after the protests:

To the people who broke a window at @Cato, maybe you should do some research about the incredible work that Cato does on exposing police brutality.... pic.twitter.com/0aueptPktM

— Samantha Summers (@Sammsummers) May 31, 2020

Another showing Cato boarded up:

cowards @CatoInstitute pic.twitter.com/ltRVnZvVvf

— Amy Fetherolf (@afetherolf) June 6, 2020

More coming later...

The End of In-Person Think Tank Events?

The era of in-person think tank events may be over, or at least paused for a very long time.  That lovely shrimp buffet at American Enterprise Institute (AEI) or swanky cocktail reception at the Brookings Institution?  Sorry, not happening anytime soon.

Every major US think tank has halted public, in-person think tank events, which often draw dozens and sometimes even hundreds of people.  Instead, think tanks have moved events almost entirely online, leaving those who depend on think tank lunches for sustenance in a very dire place.

Right now, think tanks are drawing up plans for how they can eventually return to normal, but it is still too early for most think tanks to even begin to plan when they'll hold their next public event.  Instead, most think tanks continue to grapple with how and when to bring their own employees back to work.

In the meantime, think tanks are struggling with how to attract and maintain audiences.  With everyone doing online conferences (corporations, universities, consulting firms, trade associations, embassies, think tanks, etc.), supply may be outpacing demand.  Moreover, "Zoom fatigue" appears to be another problem facing think tank events, as the relative novelty of online video conferencing fades with the increased use of such tools and services.

It is one thing to attend a think tank event in person and meet the speakers and guests and network (and dine on filet mignon and crab cakes), but it is another to sit inside your house and watch speakers drone on for hours and hours, particularly now that the competition for content and interesting speakers is so robust.

The new normal raises a number of questions.  Have think tanks become less important or influential in the coronavirus-era?  Will the crowds that once thronged think tank conference rooms ever return to their pre-coronavirus levels?  Does it make sense for think tanks to even have a physical presence, or can they exist solely online? Will any major think tank collapse due to the global economic crisis?  Will any think tanks think outside the box and do some type of unique pivot to become a dominant force?

While Think Tank Watch continues to ponder these questions and many others, we really are only sure of one thing right now: that lovely lobster dinner on Think Tank Row will instead be taking place in pajamas on a sofa for the foreseeable future.

Think Tank Quickies (#378)

• During the last economic crisis, most major US think tanks took a 3 year hit.
• Chinese Embassy in Canada attacks Macdonald-Laurier Institute. 
• Amid pandemic, think tanks extend public reach. 
• Think tanks need to take COVID-19 as an opportunity to evolve.
• AOC: "If you'd like to learn more about how this austerity class of mostly dudes at vague, esteemed-seeming DC think tanks launder harmful policies..."
• Think tanks including The Breakthrough Institute, New America, Niskanen Center, Sante Fe Institute, and Third Way jointly sponsor "Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience."
• Hoover Institution fellow fuels "fake" news story about California herd immunity?
• Pic: Waiting for think tanks who spent years obsessing over Russian propaganda to do a study on Chinese disinformation networks.
• Chinese Embassy in Sweden enraged after Gunnar Hokmark, Chairman of Stockholm Free World Forum, wrote an article calling for China to apologize about COVID-19.
• Politika: A think tank for young people; and one for those 18+.

Think Tank President Has COVID-19

In a May 23 tweet, Center for American Progress (CAP) President and CEO Neera Tanden said that she has the coronavirus.

I have the coronavirus. I’ve been sick for a week, and really, really fatigued, with muscle pain. So far, thankfully, no fever and my oxygen levels are fine. But I was super careful, wore masks, carried hand sanitizer. Haven’t really socialized with friends.

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) May 23, 2020

Tanden is a former Clinton advisor as served in the Obama Administration.

Think Tank Warns Coronavirus Cutting Off US-China Back Channels

Here is more from Politico:

The global pandemic and a dramatic rise in U.S.-China tensions have further eroded the unofficial talks that have so often underpinned relations since the two sides restored diplomatic ties decades ago.

“The pandemic has cut off personal meetings. That is very bad,” said Wang Huiyao, director with the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think tank that includes former Chinese officials and prominent Chinese scholars. “Many messages can only be conveyed indirectly by spokespersons and media, which could compromise the effectiveness of the communication and easily lead to misunderstanding.”

Here is a link to the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), which was founded by Dr. Wang Huiyao and Dr. Miao Lu in 2008.

New Think Tank to Take On Private Equity, Hedge Funds

Here is more from Politico:

A new conservative think-tank in Washington is launching its first campaign Wednesday with what could be a long-shot goal — persuading pro-business Republicans that they should cast a more skeptical eye on Wall Street’s private equity firms and hedge funds,” Bloomberg News’ Robert Schmidt and Sabrina Willmer report. “American Compass, the brainchild of former Mitt Romney campaign staffer Oren Cass, wants to re-direct Republican policies to support businesses that make things and contribute to the real economy.” The think tank, unsurprisingly, doesn’t plan to identify its donors. It has ties to Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Romney.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece on American Compass.

Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen recently penned a piece on American Compass entitled "This New Think Tank Wants to Reform Conservatism.  Republicans Ignore it at Their Peril."

Think Tank Quickies (#377)

• Think tanks warn of coronavirus "budgetary gluttony" in states. 
• Reimagining think tanks in times of pandemic.
• RUSI report: UK spies will need artificial intelligence.
• UK data think tanks clash over the use of contact-tracing apps.
• How the coronavirus affected the 2020 intern class at Brookings.
• Chiraag Bains of Demos named as co-chair of Joe Biden's "unity task force."
• Anthony Ruggiero, formerly a scholar at FDD, playing a role in US's coronavirus response. 
• Danish think tank says the US ambassador banned a Trump critic (Stanely Sloan of Atlantic Council) from an event.
• Over 265 fake local news sites in 65+ countries managed by Indian stakeholders with ties to large network of think tanks.
• Tucker Carlson: "There are no libertarians outside of think tanks."

Hackers Target WHO by Posing as Think Tank

Here is more from Bloomberg:

The messages began arriving in World Health Organization employees’ inboxes in early April, seemingly innocuous emails about the coronavirus from news organizations and researchers.

But a close examination revealed that they contained malicious links, and some security experts have traced the emails to a hacking group in Iran believed to be sponsored by the government.

The hacking effort, which began on April 3, was an attempt to steal passwords and possibly install malware on WHO computers, according to three people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorized to talk to the news media. The incident was one of several suspected state-sponsored hacks targeting WHO officials in recent weeks, the people said.

Two of the messages sent to the WHO, which were reviewed by Bloomberg News, were designed to look like coronavirus newsletters from the British Broadcasting Corporation. A third message was tailored to look like an interview request from the American Foreign Policy Council, a conservative think tank based in Washington. It encouraged recipients to click on what looked to be a shortened Google link, which diverted to a malicious domain.

The email sent to the WHO impersonating the American Foreign Policy Council purported to be from Ilan Berman, the think tank’s senior vice president. The message had the subject “AFPC Online Interview” and contained a link to what the email claimed were interview questions. But the link diverted to a malicious domain, probably intended to steal passwords and two-factor authentication codes for WHO employee email accounts, according to Zaidenberg.

In the past few years, foreign governments and others have been attempting very sophisticated cyber attacks that involve impersonating think tanks and their scholars.

Aspen Institute Returns $8 million Loan After Being Shamed

Here is more from the Washington Post: 

The Aspen Institute think tank announced it would return $8 million in federal small-business funds after a Thursday meeting of its board of trustees.

The decision marked an about-face for the nonprofit organization, which had argued Wednesday that the funds were necessary to keep its 430-person staff on payroll despite a $115 million endowment and several billionaires among its trustees.

The decision comes one day after The Washington Post revealed the institute had received the loan. The D.C.-based group joins a series of public companies, the Los Angeles Lakers and other larger employers that applied and received money from the Small Business Administration fund, only to later give it back.

The group’s many conferences and forums, the bread-and-butter of its operations, have been canceled. A 98-room conference center it owns in Aspen is closed and forecasting substantial losses. Overall, the D.C.-based nonprofit organization is projecting a loss of between $14 million and $17 million for 2020.

In defending the initial decision to keep the loan Wednesday, Aspen said it had already received board approval to tap into its endowment for $7.5 million but that about 80 percent of its endowment funds were restricted and could not be used for operating purposes.

Aspen had an endowment of more than $115 million at the end of 2018, according to its most recently available tax filing. Its board includes former Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and Chairman James S. Crown, a member of one of America’s wealthiest families.

Here is the original WaPo piece about the Aspen Institute receiving the $8 million loan.

Think Tank Watch is aware of other large think tanks that have received Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans, and it is likely that many will be pressured to return those funds once that news becomes public.

The libertarian Cato Institute is one of the few think tanks that has promised not to take bailout money.

Chinese Think Tank Report: China Faces Tiananmen-like Global Backlash Over Virus

Here is more from Reuters:

An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters. 

The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said.

As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the report’s content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

The report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence body.

CICIR, an influential think tank that until 1980 was within the Ministry of State Security and advises the Chinese government on foreign and security policy, did not reply to a request for comment. 

In related US coronavirus news, the Washington Post notes that Kevin Hassett, a former scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), led an internal White House team to build an economic model to guide response to the pandemic.

New Heritage Foundation Document Being Used to Reopen US Economy?

Here is more from Politico:

A blueprint released by The Heritage Foundation’s National Coronavirus Recovery Commission caught the attention of White House aides with its 47 suggestions for reopening the economy. Those include the White House not enforcing regulations for small businesses and making permanent some of the regulatory tweaks the federal government made during Covid-19 at the FDA, Department of Health and Human Services or the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Heritage Foundation has been one of the most influential think tanks during the Trump Administration.

Think Tank Quickies (#376)

• BPC: COVID-19 could deplete social security as early as this decade.
• ISPI launches #ThinkTanksReact campaign to show solidarity amid COVID-19. 
• Can think tanks please ease up on the press releases?
• Definitive guide to think tank podcasts.
• US think tanks release annual counterspace and space threats studies.
• 2020 ranking of free-market think tanks measured by social media impact.
• Judge: Wisconsin Gov. can keep conservative think tank members out of media briefings.
• China should be sued for $6.5 trillion for coronavirus damage says top UK think tank.
• Global Times: "Ill-intentioned American think tank fellow maligns Chinese assistance in Middle East to sow discord."
• Kent Calder on SAIS' Reischauer Center: "It is a problem-oriented think tank."

Brothers From Opposing Think Tanks Fight Over Climate Policy

Here is more from E&E News:

It's brother versus brother in the climate wars.

Two of the primary think tanks fighting it out on climate policy are now led by brothers on opposing sides of the argument over human-caused global warming.

In one corner is Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, which advocates for a carbon tax and other methods of mitigating climate change.

In the other is James Taylor, recently installed as president of the Heartland Institute, which seeks to undercut climate science and says that climate fears are overblown.

Jerry Taylor spent years battling climate regulations when he was a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute, with the idea that humanity had decades to act on global warming. But as Taylor studied the science more closely, he became convinced his skepticism was misplaced.

He founded Niskanen to promote carbon pricing and has spent years conducting outreach with libertarians and conservatives who are concerned about climate change and open to policy solutions.

Here is a biography and recent writings of Jerry Taylor, and here is one for James Taylor.

Think Tank Finds Whereabouts of Kim Jong Un?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is apparently in ill health and hasn't be seen in public in weeks.  A Washington, DC-based think tank, however, may have found some evidence of his location.  Here is more from Reuters:

A special train possibly belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was spotted this week at a resort town in the country, according to satellite images reviewed by a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, amid conflicting reports about Kim’s health and whereabouts.

The monitoring project, 38 North, said in its report on Saturday that the train was parked at the “leadership station” in Wonsan on April 21 and April 23. The station is reserved for the use of the Kim family, it said.

Though the group said it was probably Kim Jong Un’s train, Reuters has not been able to confirm that independently, or whether he was in Wonsan.

Here are more details from 38 North, which is now housed within the Stimson Center and managed by former US State Department official Joel Wit and managing editor Jenny Town.  Those two co-founded 38 North in 2010 at Johns Hopkins, where is was originally housed.

Cato Institute Promises Not to Take Bailout Money

Here is more from Cato Institute's Peter Goettler and Robert Levy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:

The libertarian think tank we lead qualifies as a small business that can apply for loans under the recently passed Cares Act—an acronym for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security. But...we’re choosing to leave those dollars on the shelf.

We wouldn’t criticize others for taking aid. In our communities and across the nation, millions have lost jobs and paychecks, while vital needs persist. Small-business owners struggle to preserve their life’s work and to sustain their employees. And we can’t say these loans wouldn’t help us right now. We’re wholly funded by private donations, the overwhelming majority of which come from individuals who will suffer material losses from the pandemic. Financial pressures and difficult choices lie ahead.

Why, then, are we not applying for a Cares Act loan? Because doing so would undermine the principles that underlie the Cato Institute’s mission and animate its policy work. Central to this mission is our view that the scope and power of government should be limited. Our ability to make that case with credibility and integrity would be irreparably compromised if we accepted a loan right now. We’ve never taken money from any government.

Most think tanks are established as nonprofits, which are eligible to access funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  In fact, Think Tank Watch is aware of several think tanks that have already received loans/grants.

New provisions to aid nonprofits, which could greatly benefit think tanks, are currently being discussed for the next round of stimulus money.

White House Official (Now a Think Tanker) Had Warned Trump Admin. in 2019 of Devastating Pandemic

Here is more from the New York Times:

White House economists published a study last September that warned a pandemic disease could kill a half million Americans and devastate the economy.  It went unheeded inside the administration.

One of the authors of the study, who has since left the White House, now says it would make sense for the administration to effectively shut down most economic activity for two to eight months to slow the virus.

Outside economists have been pumping out analyses on the optimal length of a shutdown almost daily. One that has been shared with officials inside the White House comes from Anna Scherbina, an author of the 2019 study who is now an economist at Brandeis University and the American Enterprise Institute.

Anna Scherbina is a visiting scholar at AEI.  Here is her working paper on determining the optimal duration of the COVID-19 suppression policy.

Another AEI scholar, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who was Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Trump Administration, has co-authored a new report on a national COVID-19 surveillance system.

Dr. Gottlieb has reportedly been talking with lawmakers about crafting legislation to put his surveillance system in place.

That paper was co-authored with Mark McClellan, another former FDA commissioner (under George W. Bush) who used to be a scholar at AEI as well as the Brookings Institution.

Here is a link to all of AEI's COVID-19 coverage, including its COVID-19 Action Tracker.

"Think Tank" Sowing Disinformation About Coronavirus

Here is more from the New York Times:

Chinese officials appeared to have relied on borrowing falsehoods pushed by anti-American organizations cultivated by the Kremlin that already have an audience in Western countries. Some of the sites have received Russian money, according to experts.

On March 12, for instance, Zhao Lijian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, posted a link on Twitter to what he described as a “very much important” article that falsely described American origins of the coronavirus.

The article was from Global Research, a group based in Montreal that presents itself as a think tank but largely traffics in conspiracy theories, many of them pro-Russian and anti-American.

At least a dozen other Chinese Embassies around the world retweeted Mr. Zhao’s post. All told, more than 12,000 accounts have retweeted it and more than 20,000 users have liked it.

Here is more about the Global Research article from Politico:

On March 4, the People’s Daily reprint of this article was used as the basis for a piece published on conspiracy website GlobalResearch.ca, titled “China’s Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did The Virus Originate in the US?” It was the first of two articles on the website that would lead to Zhao’s tweet nine days later suggesting the U.S. Army had brought the virus to Wuhan.

Here is a link to Global Research, and here is a link to the above-mentioned article.

In related new, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS), unveiled a tool to track the Chinese disinformation campaign.  As NYT notes, the group's Hamilton dashboard has long monitored Russian Twitter accounts and broadcast feeds.

What Happens to Think Tank Funding After a Global Crisis?

Here is a tweet from Hans Gutbrod of Transparify:

More on #thinktanks after the 2008 crisis. Taken together, revenues for top US #thinktanks reduced by nearly 20%, after the financial crisis. @tomhashemi @ThinkTankWatch @transparify -- @onthinktanks session kicking off shortly pic.twitter.com/ckNJPtrDiy

— Hans Gutbrod (@HansGutbrod) April 1, 2020

Think Tank Watch has learned that a number of donors are making cuts to the think tanks they fund.  Moreover, think tanks themselves have been tightening the belt and have started to announce things like salary cuts.

Here is what happened to the revenue of the Brookings Institution during the 2008 financial crisis.

Think Tanks Helping to Write 4th Coronavirus Stimulus Package

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

As lawmakers last week completed a record-shattering economic-rescue package estimated at $2 trillion, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) predicted: “This is certainly not the end of our work here in Congress—rather the end of the beginning.”

Legislators from both parties, administration officials, economists, think tanks and lobbyists are already roughing out the contours of yet another emergency-spending package—perhaps larger than the last—to try to keep the coronavirus crisis from turning into a 21st-century Great Depression. Many expect the debate to begin in earnest by late April.

“There’s talk of a multi-trillion-dollar program, given the size of the shutdown,” says Stephen Moore, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “There’s a general recognition that we need something big to get some juice into the economy,” adds Mr. Moore, an outside economic consultant to the Trump administration and some congressional Republicans.

The article notes that Mr. Moore "has discussed with administration officials and congressional Republicans" the idea of suspending the payroll tax through the end of the year.

It also notes that Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI), has been working with Republican lawmakers on crisis-response measures.

Here are some links to Think Tank Watch's latest pieces on the coronavirus.

Think Tank Quickies (#375)

• Think tank claims hundreds of fishing boats intrude into Chinese waters.
• Conservative site Gateway Pundit: DC think tanks lobbying for illegal aliens to get checks and healthcare in coronavirus relief package.
• Robert O'Brien had off-the-record dinner at CSIS hosted by Dan Runde for about 20 current and former officials.
• Analysts at think tank present disturbing assessment of freedom in US.
• Nearly all DC think tanks large and small are shut down due to coronavirus.
• AEI has started a tool @COVID2019tests to track total coronavirus testing capacity.
• Think tank CSIS continuing to get South China Sea issues wrong? 
• Ed Lezere, the leader of left-leaning DC think tank DC Fiscal Policy Institute, is running for an at-large seat on the DC Council.
• Radix: A "think tank for the radical centre." 
• American Alliance of Museum's Center for the Future of Museums, a DC think tank "that studies trends and challenges likely to affect the museum world."

Will Think Tanks Survive the Coronavirus Pandemic?

The response to the coronavirus pandemic has already caused many job cuts, and it is sure to hurt funding at a number of think tanks.

Can think tanks survive in this environment?  Here is what Hans Gutbrod and Till Bruckner of Transparify said in a new piece entitled: "Avoiding the Asteroid: Being Constructive and Relevant in the Pandemic":

COVID-19 could become to many think tanks what the asteroid was to dinosaurs: an extinction level event. It’s likely that sector funding will decrease sharply, both within countries and from foreign donors in developing-country contexts, while other pressing causes take precedence.

And here is a piece from On Think Tanks founder and director Enrique Mendizabal, entitled "Times of Crisis: What Can Think Tanks and Their Funders Do?"

Here is a recent Think Tank Watch piece on why no think tanks predicted the coronavirus pandemic.

Here is a selection of various think tank writings on the coronavirus.

Nonprofits, which have been seeking billions of dollars in emergency funding, are already feeling the impact of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, think tanks continue to cancel events left and right.

Why No Think Tanks Predicted the Coronavirus Pandemic

Here is a little tidbit from Neil Pyper in The National Interest:

A number of think tanks and consultancies provide early warning services about low-profile, high-impact events, such as conflict in the South China Sea. However, if they feature events that are considered far fetched, they risk losing credibility among their clients and readers.

Of course, after major events happen, think tanks readily jump on the short-term bandwagon and offer quick analysis that often lacks depth and breadth.

Coronavirus Chaos Rocks Think Tanks

While nearly every Washington think tank large and small has closed their offices and instituted telework policies, they still continue to churn out reports.  Following is a selection of think tank work on the coronavirus:

Brookings

• Coronavirus guidance.
• Brookings' coronavirus homepage.
• How will the Chinese economy rebound from COVID-19?
• Why $1 trillion is not enough.
• The economy and policy in the coronavirus crisis to date.
• The global macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19: Seven scenarios.

Heritage Foundation

• Heritage president on fighting coronavirus and public health policy responses.
• The Senate's Coronavirus Bill: Bailouts, Missed Opportunities, and Positive Reforms. 
• Social distancing SCOTUS style.
• Heritage's recommended curricula for schools and families amid COVID-19.
• Flattening the curve is critical to fighting coronavirus.
• Social distancing most effective measure to stop spread (video).

Cato Institute

• Crafting policy in an extraordinary crisis. 
• Government policy and the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Coronavirus and market resilience.
• Coronavirus and politicians vs. the economy.
• Coronavirus is changing how we learn.
• Free, online learning resources when coronavirus closes schools.

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

• Regaining Lost Ground: Defense Support in the Coronavirus Pandemic. 
• The impact of COVID-19 on humanitarian crises.
• COVID-19: US economy and supply chains.
• US-China relations and COVID-19: What can be done now.
• Coronation, coronavirus, and the economy: The economic backdrop of a fifth Putin term.
• Use of military forces in COVID-19 emergency.

Atlantic Council

• A coronavirus message from the president of Atlantic Council. 
• Atlantic Council's coronavirus homepage.
• How the US can avoid COVID's geopolitical perils. 
• Amid COVID-19, Iraq remains US-Iran battleground.
• How the coronavirus will impact Panama's economy.
• The global economic policy response to coronavirus takes shape.

RAND Corporation

• RAND's coronavirus homepage.
• The social distancing economy: Q&A with RAND experts.
• Coronavirus, telemedicine, and dustbusters.
• COVID-19 call with RAND experts.
• Truth decay in the coronavirus moment.
• Why prioritizing sleep in the time of coronavirus is so important.

Urban Institute

• How we can alleviate economic insecurity during the pandemic.
• Even before coronavirus outbreak, hourly and self-employed workers were struggling to meet basic needs.
• How should prisons and jails prepare for COVID-19?
• Understanding hospital bed capacities nationwide amid COVID-19.
• Addressing housing insecurity during a pandemic.
• What a COVID-19 recession looks like.

Peterson Institute for International Economics

• Policy in the time of coronavirus. 
• The case for a big coronavirus stimulus.
• Coronavirus, a new jolt to Iran's economy?
• Coronavirus: From quarantine to trade.
• Coronavirus and trade restrictions.
• Coronavirus is no excuse for repeating errors of financial crisis.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• What the coronavirus means for China's foreign policy.
• The coronavirus pandemic should end Europe's comfort zone.
• How is Russia coping with the coronavirus?
• US-China cooperation on coronavirus hampered by propaganda war.
• Drawing near to God amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Corruption vulnerabilities in the US response to the coronavirus.

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

• Much at stake as EU battles COVID-19.
• Russia's not ready for coronavirus.
• Anticipating coronavirus in West Africa.
• How to save lives in a COVID-19 pandemic.
• Africa is not starting from scratch on COVID-19.
• Why is Southeast Asia responding differently to COVID-19

Wilson Center

• Ukrainians keep their composure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Venezuela and the coronavirus.
• Russia's Chinese dream in the era of COVID-19.
• Reaction to new COVID-19 travel restrictions.
• Evaluating the impact of COVID-19 in Mexico.
• What lies behind Russia's coronavirus containment effort.

US Institute of Peace (USIP)

• Nonviolent action in the time of coronavirus. 
• Impact of coronavirus in fragile states.
• Why the Middle East is especially vulnerable to the coronavirus crisis.
• Iran and Iraq amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Amid global coronavirus outbreak, what about refugees?
• Coronavirus poses yet another challenge for the Afghan peace process.

Much more coming soon...