24 Oct
2016
What the next president will do, what Clarence Thomas will say, and what it takes to be Middle Class: Sphere Consulting’s TenCount for October 24, 2016
- Two weeks (+1 day) to the election, and everyone wants to know what the new president is going to do – whoever he or she is. On Monday, the Middle East Institute hosts a noon discussion on “Middle East and Regional Transition, Terrorism and CVE: What the Next President Will Face,” and in the afternoon the Henry L. Stimson Center and the Center for American Progress discusses “Coping with the Refugee Crisis and Violent Conflict: Bold Ideas for the Next U.S. President and U.N. Secretary General.”
- International relations is also the focus of two other forward-looking events. On Wednesday, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations begins its 25th annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference, looking at “The Next U.S. Presidency and U.S. Arab Relations: Probabilities, Possibilities and Potential Pitfalls.” And on Thursday morning, the Brookings Institution discusses “How the next president can impact the future of U.S. alliances and the international liberal order.”
- The Federal Communications Commission meets on Thursday to consider new regulations for how broadband Internet service providers should interpret and enforce consumer privacy. The new rules are expected to require explicit consent from customers before broadband companies can use their browsing and app usage history for marketing purposes. On Monday, TechFreedom takes a look at “How Should the FCC Police Broadband Privacy?”
- The F.C.C. of course will be at the middle of the regulatory and antitrust battle over whether AT&T should be allowed to merge with Time Warner. The success of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger offers hope, but already the congressional antitrust committees have vowed to take a look and the presidential campaigns have expressed wariness, with Trump saying that he would try to block the deal.
- He Speaks! Known for his silence during arguments before the Supreme Court and his advocacy of judicial restraint, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas will give the 9th Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture in a webcast-only event at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday evening.
- Two book discussions take a look at globalism and its effects on employment. On Monday, the Council on Foreign Relations hosts a confab honoring Edward Alden’s “Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy.” And on Tuesday, the American Enterprise Institute gives a launch party for “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis,” by Nicholas Eberstadt.
- Free trade has certainly garnered its share of attention in this election season, and two events this week look at the topic from different perspectives. On Wednesday, the Brookings Institution conducts a debate on “Have Free Trade Deals Been a Net Positive for Working Americans?” And on Thursday, the Cato Institute hosts a discussion on “Fall Fables and Fallacies: The Truth about Free Trade.”
- Like many relationships, the history of America’s involvement in the Middle East is … complicated. Four events take a look this week: On Tuesday at noon the Center for American Progress discusses “Strengthening Partnerships in the Middle East,” while simultaneously the Arab Gulf States Institute hosts a discussion on “How Americans and Gulf Arabs See Each Other.” Later Tuesday, Stanford’s Hoover Institution conducts a book discussion on “Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East.” Then on Thursday the Atlantic Council discusses “The Root Causes of Conflict in the Middle East and How to Tackle Them.”
- “The Litigation Machine” is the subject of the 17th annual Legal Reform Summit on Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which focuses on such elements as third-party litigation financing, data privacy liability, class action litigation and trial lawyer advertising and which features a keynote by Mitt Romney.
- What does it take to be middle class and how do you get there? Those and other questions will be considered by the Independent Women’s Forum on Thursday when it hosts an all-star panel for a discussion on “Does the Middle Class Have a Future?” Let’s hope the answer is yes.