HKS in the News May 18, 2012

1. NATO: When I’m Sixty-Four (Burns) The New York Times

2. Establishment Is Pitted Against Tea Party in Kentucky (Grayson) Roll Call

3. The Death of Inflation Targeting (Frankel) New Times (Rwanda)

4. Is the government getting aggressive on vendor prices? (Round Two) (Kelman) Federal Computer Week

5. Richard Parker: Causes Of Greek Economic Crisis More Complex Than Many People Think (Parker) The Huffington Post

6. What will Hillary Clinton's diplomatic legacy be? (Buttu) USA Today

7. What I Learned About Power Last Weekend (Nye) Government Executive

8. Study finds abuses in warehouse industry (Rowe) The LA Times

NATO: When I’m Sixty-Four

The New York Times

May 18

Commentary by: Nicholas Burns, Belfer Center

Topic: The future of NATO

Professor Burns was also quoted in The Associated Press and CNN

NATO was 63 in April and will celebrate its birthday at next week’s summit meeting in Chicago, no doubt accompanied by much debate about what purpose the alliance now serves and whether it has a future.

The backdrop is somber. The NATO heads of government will focus on the withdrawal of the alliance’s forces from Afghanistan by the 2014 date set by President Obama. NATO’s legacy is uncertain but there is little optimism that, despite the blood and treasure expended over the past decade, Afghanistan’s fragile progress will weather a renewed Taliban onslaught. …

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Establishment Is Pitted Against Tea Party in Kentucky

Roll Call

May 17

Quoted: Trey Grayson, Institute of Politics

Topic: GOP election in Kentucky

… Unaligned Kentucky Republicans see momentum behind (Thomas) Massie. He has the most money being spent on his behalf — including $543,000 from a Texas-based super PAC reportedly funded by a wealthy college student — and the backing of FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth, which have both spent heavily on anti-establishment candidates in recent Senate primaries.

“When I look at all these factors of low turnout, voters who don’t know the candidates very well, I don’t see how — if that super PAC spends twice as much as a single campaign — I don’t see how that doesn’t make Massie the favorite,” said former Kentucky Secretary of StateTrey Grayson, who lost the 2010 Senate primary to Paul and is now the director of the Harvard University Institute of Politics. …

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The Death of Inflation Targeting

New Times (Rwanda)

May 18

Commentary by: Jeffrey Frankel

Topic: Fiscal policy

It is with regret that we announce the death of inflation targeting. The monetary-policy regime, known as IT to friends, evidently passed away in September 2008.

The lack of an official announcement until now attests to the esteem in which it was held, its usefulness as an ornament of credibility for central banks, and fears that there might be no good candidates to succeed it as the preferred anchor for monetary policy. …

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Is the government getting aggressive on vendor prices? (Round Two)

Federal Computer Week

May 16

Commentary by: Steven Kelman

Topic: Government contracting

During the economic crisis of 2008-2009, I wrote a number of blogs and columns (and also discussed at speaking engagements) the need to urge the government to seek price reductions in existing contracts and to be more aggressive about seeking discounts when new contracts were awarded. In one column, that I must admit went over like a lead balloon, (one commenter asked what I had been drinking when I wrote it), I urged defense contractors to accept a temporary 1 percent reduction in prices for weapons in production and 10 percent for spare parts. In general, I think the government response to this suggestion was underwhelming.

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Richard Parker: Causes Of Greek Economic Crisis More Complex Than Many People Think The Huffington Post

May 17

Quoted: Richard Parker, Shorenstein Center

Topic: The Greek economic crisis

The causes of the economic crisis in Greece may not be as simple as you think.

In a new video from the Harvard Kennedy School, lecturer Richard Parker explains some of the lessons we should take from the country's current predicament. Per the Campaign for the American Conversation, Parker is also "a former economic advisor to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou."

He argues that we shouldn't "fall into easy answers about the character or the moral values of other people" to explain Greece's problems. According to Parker, "the story has been told in America as one of the feckless Greeks, the lazy Greeks, the non-tax paying Greeks. It's not true." …

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What will Hillary Clinton's diplomatic legacy be?

USA Today

May 17

Quoted: Diana Buttu, Belfer Center

Topic: Hillary Clinton’s political career

… What stands between Clinton and the great diplomats of the past, some say, are two things: a landmark accomplishment and a free hand from the White House to carve her place in history.

Perhaps the biggest omission from Clinton's résumé is advancing Middle East peace. "She hasn't picked up the ball, and neither has President Obama," says Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "To me, it signals that they just don't have a policy any longer when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians."

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What I Learned About Power Last Weekend

Government Executive

May 16

Cited: Joseph Nye, Dean’s Conference, and Kennedy School Reunion

Topic: Soft Power

This past weekend I traveled to Cambridge, Mass., for the 25th reunion of my graduating class at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. …

On Friday… there was a Dean’s Conference with a lineup of really interesting speakers. They were all good, but the one who really stood out for me was Joseph Nye, the long-time Harvard professor who also served as assistant secretary of Defense and other positions over the years.

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Study finds abuses in warehouse industry

The LA Times

May 17

Cited: Research by Jason Rowe MPP 2012

Topic: The logistics industry

Logistics, the art of bringing socks and TVs and carrots from where they're made to a store near you, is a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S., and continuing to grow. The industry grew 10% in the middle of a deep recession, according to a report last year, and helps companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon get goods to you in increasingly cheap ways.

But the logistics industry may also be driving down standards of living, according to a report out today by Jason Rowe of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in partnership with New Labor, a workers rights group.

Rowe surveyed 291 workers in New Jersey's logistics industry and found deep problems in the way companies operate in towns off the New Jersey Turnpike. The Port of Newark/Elizabeth transported 81 million metric tons of cargo in 2010 alone, and is expected to grow in importance in the logistics industry when the Panama Canal is extended, scheduled for 2014. …

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