The Brookings Institution has been busy pushing forward on an agenda for socialized entrepreneurship.
Two items from the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship this week caught my eye (and raised the hair on the back of my neck).
First:
A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brookings Institution suggests that a new National Innovation Foundation could do a better job of structuring key Federal agencies to support innovation. The study recommends that a newly created National Innovation Foundation serve as the Federal government’s primary support mechanism and point of contact for issues related to innovation. The report proposes three possible structures for a new NIF: housed within the Commerce Department; a publicly-sponsored corporation similar to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and, as an independent federal agency like the National Science Foundation.
I must admit I would never have dreamed of modeling anything after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Next. another report. I should note that both of these are from the same series, which they call Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation:
A new Brookings Institution study contends that current Federal policies do too little to promote cluster creation, i.e. agglomerations of businesses, service providers, and other partners who operate in a particular field or sector. As part of a wider set of programs to spur innovation, the report recommends that policymakers initiate a new set of programs to catalyze cluster activity across the US. This effort would contain two components. First, a Cluster Information Center would help map cluster initiatives across the US and provide research and evaluation about these programs. This effort is modeled on a successful European effort, the European Cluster Observatory. Second, a new Federal grant program (of about $360 million) to help fund state and regional cluster initiatives. This effort would help seed state and local innovations and also build closer connections between Federal, state and local partners.
And while we’re at it, let’s create another federal agency promoting rent seeking and model it after a European agency that tries to steer business activity to advance social agendas.
No thanks, Brookings! Keep your hands off American free enterprise! Markets work. Federal bureaucracies do not.