Think Tank

Ostensibly, a thinktank is really just that -- a bunch of people who get paid to think. Arguably, there's no real reason why anyone can't go on the marketplace as a thinktank. After all, there's certainly no license or some certifying agency that regulates that sort of thing. (Partially inspired by an article in the recent Economist fowarded to me by Buck about the creation of a completely fake think-tank being used by Russia to support their political allies in Moldovia)

I've been toying with the idea of soliciting the embassies of small governments to offer the research and policy paper generating services of "The Umbrella Insititute." If we play it confidently enough and we hook the Harvard name to it, I think there's a -small- but palpable chance that some embassy would at least ask us for more information. Nations would have an interest in having an independent thinktank produce research that supported their positions from the brightest young minds in America (us), and we would have a good time putting it together.

I'm in the process of compiling a list of small countries that might potentially be attracted by the offer, especially if our services are free or really cheap. So far --

Brunei, Qatar, Hondorus, Belize, Nicaragua, Laos, Equatorial Guinea, Mongolia, Ecuador, and Micronesia

More soon...