Creative Class

The New York Times Elizabeth Bumiller reports on boom in DC “research groups” (pointer via Ryan Avent)

The economy may be slowing down, but Washington’s ideas industry is booming. The
Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research institution
that was effectively broke seven years ago, just bought a $33 million
vacant lot downtown as the site for a new home. The Council on Foreign Relations
is expanding its Washington office to a $60 million building on F
Street. The United States Institute of Peace is erecting a $180 million
headquarters of steel and white translucent glass on a corner of the
Mall. Not least, the rapidly growing Brookings Institution
— its operating budget is up nearly 50 percent in the past two years
alone — just paid $18.5 million for a satellite building across the
street from its headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue, in a stretch near
Dupont Circle known as Think Tank Row.

That’s nearly $300 million. A DC insider once told me these so-called think tanks don’t so much create new intellectual capital as repackage and recycle it - or as he put it, they run it down.  Candidly, I was shockingly disappointed during my time in DC by the inability of most think tanks to tackle big questions in an open-minded, globally-oriented (that is not American-centric) way.  And while there always are individual exceptions, I was also dismayed by the quality of  much of the work.  My hunch is the increased giving is being fueled by partisan agendas - actually, I have been told many time this is the way think tanks increasingly are funded - as political actors seek to lend credibility and legitimacy to desired actions.

Question: About that $300 million - I wonder how much this works out to per unique new idea?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 8:11 am and is filed under Technology & Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.