Resident Scholar Andrew G. Biggs

AEI launched its newest Outlook series in November: Retirement Policy Outlook, which will feature frequent editions on Social Security, pensions, aging, entitlements, and other vital issues. The inaugural issue, by Andrew G. Biggs, modeled how personal accounts for Social Security would have fared in the recent financial turmoil.

On November 20, Michael Auslin and Christopher Griffin released Securing Freedom: The U.S.-Japanese Alliance in a New Era, in which they recommend revitalizing the half-century-old alliance with a common agenda of promoting liberalism in Asia and the Pacific Rim.

AEI's Election Watch team concluded its biennial series with a postelection luncheon analyzing the results. One enthusiastic participant e-mailed AEI to say: "The election is not over until we hear from the AEI Election Watch team."

Arthur F. Burns Fellow Peter J. Wallison

Explaining the origins of the financial crisis in Reader's Digest, Washington bureau chief Carl Cannon writes that "one of the earliest alarms was sounded by AEI scholar Peter J. Wallison . . . in a series of books, articles, and public lectures. . . . Wallison warned that by 2003 [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] would be responsible for half the residential mortgage risk in the United States and that, because of their unique charters, it was really the American taxpayers who were holding the bag to a portfolio--held by just two companies--of some six trillion dollars. . . . Congress simply wouldn't listen to any of Wallison's warnings, however. It's too bad. If they had, this entire financial crisis might have been avoided."

Even after the housing bubble burst, homes remain unaffordable for the poor and the middle class in many parts of the country. In Rethinking Federal Housing Policy: How to Make Housing Plentiful and Affordable (AEI Press, December 2008), Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko argue for a comprehensive overhaul of housing policy, including a housing voucher program to replace subsidies for the construction of low-income housing.

Resident Fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Jagdish Bhagwati, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Michael Novak participated in the latest of the John Templeton Foundation's "Big Questions" series, with each considering whether the free market corrodes moral character. "To the contrary," replied Bhagwati, participation in commerce and expansion of trade lead to "ethical outcomes." Hirsi Ali said that the free market is imperfect but that it is superior to any other system. Novak answered, "No! And, well, yes"--the successes of virtuous capitalists undermine future generations' moral stamina, but virtuous living is always an available choice for free peoples.

Why did welfare caseloads collapse so much--and so unexpectedly--after welfare reform in the 1990s? Lawrence M. Mead convened a conference on November 14 to examine one possible reason: diversion, by which single mothers bypassed welfare rolls entirely as welfare reform directed them into work. The field research and state studies presented at the event provided background and insight into Mead's current examination of how to design work programs for low-income men.

Resident Scholar John E. Calfee

On November 3, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Wyeth v. Levine, an important case affecting the state tort liability system and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of pharmaceuticals. In a Health Policy Outlook that coincided with the hearing, John E. Calfee assessed the merits of FDA preemption of state tort liability lawsuits.

Ahmad Majidyar, a research assistant in Middle Eastern studies at AEI, helped to conduct training at Fort Bragg for the 33rd Brigade Combat Team, which is deploying to Afghanistan. Majidyar lectured on Afghan culture, Islamic theology, and the use of interpreters.