American Enterprise Institute

Encyclopedia : A : AM : AME : American Enterprise Institute

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943 whose stated mission is to support the "foundations of freedom - limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense." The Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization supported primarily by grants and contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals.

Like most think tanks that maintain non-profit status under the federal tax code, AEI is strictly nonpartisan and takes no institutional positions on pending legislation or other policy questions.

However, it has emerged as one of the leading architects of the Bush administration's public policy; more than two dozen AEI alumni have served either in a Bush administration policy post or on one of the government's many panels and commissions. AEI, along with the more conservative Heritage Foundation, is often cited as a center-right counterpart to the center-left Brookings Institution, although AEI and Heritage place much more emphasis on advocacy than does Brookings [link]. In 1998, AEI and Brookings established the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies.

Contents

1 \"Irrational Exuberance\"
2 Personnel
3 Funders
4 Governance
5 See also
6 External links

\"Irrational Exuberance\"

AEI garnered significant global attention on December 5, 1996, when Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan addressed the institute and remarked, just a few years before the 2000 stock market correction, that the American stock market may have ascended unduly, attributable to what Greenspan called the "irrational exuberance" of investors.

Greenspan's comments to AEI proved to be among his most notable, leading to significant debate over whether American stock evaluations were, in fact, overvalued and even to a book named for the comment, "Irrational Exuberance".

Personnel

Lynne Cheney, the wife of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, and an AEI senior fellow.
Christopher DeMuth, who served in the Reagan administration, has been president of AEI since 1986
Mark Falcoff, Resident Scholar Emeritus and Latin America expert.
Ted Frank is resident fellow and director of the AEI Liability Project.
David Frum, an author and former speechwriter for Bush, is a resident fellow.
Reuel Marc Gerecht is a resident fellow. He is the director of the Project for the New American Century's Middle East Initiative and a former Middle East specialist at the CIA.
Newt Gingrich, member of the Republican Party and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives between 1995 and 1999, is a senior fellow at AEI focusing on health care (he has founded the Center for Health Transformation), information technology, the military, and politics.
Author James K. Glassman is a resident fellow.
Michael Greve is the John G. Searle Scholar and director of AEI's Federalism Project.
Jeane Kirkpatrick is the former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and an AEI senior fellow.
Bruce Kovner is the chairman of the board of trustees.
Michael Ledeen was previously involved in the transfer of arms to Iran during the Iran-Contra affair -- an adventure that he documented in his book, Perilous Statecraft: An Insider's Account of the Iran-Contra Affair.
Joshua Muravchik, is a Resident Scholar. He researches Middle East politics, democracy, neoconservatism and the history of socialism.
Charles Murray, an influential policy writer and a researcher, is the W.H. Brady Scholar in Culture and Freedom. He is best known as the co-author of the controversial The Bell Curve in 1994.
Michael Novak is the George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy and Public Policy and Director of Social and Political Studies at the institute. He has written extensively about the role of faith in government.
Richard Perle serves on the United States Defense Policy Board and the former deputy Secretary of Defense.
Lee Raymond, CEO of ExxonMobil, is the vice chair of AEI's board of trustees.
Sally Satel is a psychiatrist and author of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine.
Christina Hoff Sommers is a critic of the feminist movement. She is the author of Who Stole Feminism and The War Against Boys.
Fred Thompson, the current D.A. on Law & Order and former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, researches "National Security & Intelligence (China, North Korea, and Russia)" for the AEI.
Ben Wattenberg, a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson, is a senior fellow.
John Yoo, formerly of the Office of Legal Counsel, and a professor at Boalt Hall, is a visiting scholar.
Karl Zinsmeister, editor in chief of the American Enterprise Magazine 1994-2006, as of 2006 Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy.

Funders

AEI has received more than $30 million in funding from sources including the following:

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
Castle Rock Foundation
Coors
Earhart Foundation
JM Foundation
Microsoft Corporation [link]
Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
Sarah Scaife Foundation
Scaife Family Foundation
Smith Richardson Foundation

Governance

The AEI is governed by a board of trustees. Current members of the board are: Gordon Binder, Harian Crow, Chris DeMuth, Morton Fleischer, Chris Galvin, Raymond Gilmartin, Harvey Golub, Robert Greenhill, Roger Hertog, Martin Koffel, John Luke, Ben Lytle, Alex Mandl, Robert Pritzker, Joe Ricketts, Kevin Rollins, John W. Rowe, Edward Rust, William Stavropoulos, Wilson Taylor, Marilyn Ware, and James Q. Wilson.

Emeritus trustees of the organization are: Willard Butcher, Richard Madden, Robert Malott, Paul McCracken, Paul Oreffice, and Henry Wendt.

External links