Arthur C. Brooks and Kevin B. Rollins

Arthur C. Brooks  assumed the presidency of AEI on January 1, and Kevin B. Rollins , a senior adviser at TPG Capital and the former president and CEO of Dell Inc., became the chairman of AEI's Board of Trustees . At a December 11 dinner held in honor of outgoing president Christopher DeMuth , outgoing chairman Bruce Kovner said, "Chris's ability to nurture an atmosphere of intellectual freedom, mutual respect, and civility at AEI--in many ways the antithesis of what we find in many universities today--has been essential to the development of what is perhaps the best public policy faculty in America."

As President-elect Barack Obama announces his top political appointments, AEI heralds the appointment of Peter R. Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
A widely respected economist and policy analyst, Orszag has headlined several AEI conferences on health care and entitlement spending. Paul A. Volcker , the former head of the Federal Reserve, will be appointed to chair the newly created President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Volcker received AEI's highest honor, the Francis Boyer Award , at the Institute's Annual Dinner in 1987.

Arthur F. Burns Fellow Peter J. Wallison

News outlets reported in December that the Treasury Department was working on a plan to use the clout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower mortgage interest rates for homebuyers. Peter J. Wallison  and Edward Pinto were ahead of the curve on this, arguing for a similar plan in an October Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled " Let's Use Fannie to Clean Up the Mess It Made ."

Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D. , of the National Institutes of Health presented Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America (PublicAffairs, 2008) at a December book forum . Among his proposals is eliminating the tax deduction for employer-sponsored health insurance and replacing it with a system offering every citizen a voucher sufficient for purchasing an insurance plan. He also urges a shift toward transparent reporting of health outcomes. Joseph Antos , Thomas P. Miller , and Robert B. Helms  commented.

Research Fellow Aparna Mathur

What if you want to cut down on your energy use, but downsizing from a house to an apartment or buying an expensive but energy efficient Toyota Prius are not options? In their December Energy and Environment Outlook , Kenneth P. Green  and Aparna Mathur  calculate Americans' indirect energy use, which accounts for nearly half of total energy consumed. Small sacrifices to reduce indirect energy consumption include cutting back on pharmaceutical waste, reducing air travel, and substituting poultry and vegetables for beef and refined grains.

Resident Fellow David Frum

In his weekly column in Canada's National Post , David Frum  has been chronicling the recent intrigue in Ottawa, including the October reelection of Stephen Harper's Conservatives, the opposition's attempt in late November and early December to form a coalition and vote no confidence in the government, and the prorogation of parliament until January 26. Frum writes  that Harper will need to act quickly to respond to the worldwide recession when parliament returns, lest his government face early elections.

In his newest book, The Competition of Ideas: The World of the Washington Think Tanks (Transaction, 2008), Murray L. Weidenbaum draws on his experience with policy institutes--including serving on AEI's Council of Academic Advisers --to survey the role of think tanks in American public life. He encourages think tanks to eschew responding to day-by-day developments and instead take the long-term view.

On November 20, the New York Times crossword featured a four-part clue asking for a quote by Allan H. Meltzer . The answer: "Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin," an old aphorism of Meltzer's that achieved new currency during the 2008 financial crisis.