The history leading up to central banking was long. The emergence in the Middle Ages of stock-holding commercial companies was important. While corporations as religious holders of property, such as temples or cemeteries, are found in Roman Law, their reemergence in the Middle Ages as monasteries, guilds and confraternities, and universities were not commercial as there were equal votes among the members. Commercial partnerships did not permit continuity if a partner died (one of the issues with Islamic commerce as analyzed by Timur Kuran, Islam and Mammon (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2004)). The partnerships were generally among relatives. (A general background can be found in: Leonard P. Liggio, “The Medieval Law Merchant: Economic Growth Challenged by the Public Choice State,” Journal des economists et des etudes humaines 9 (March, 1999).)

Italian merchants undertook the new risk of investing among non-relatives by means of stock shares and voting in proportion of share value. The commercial corporation was born. (In 1284 a Swedish corporation was formed to exploit copper deposits which we know from a count case when a bishop attempted to divert the diocese’s quarter share to his brother as though it was personal property rather than property of the diocese.)

The commercial stock company came into wider use with the Age of Discovery. Although the rulers of Portugal and Castile invested in the early voyages to America and to the East Indies, northern European monarchs had less available funds to fund the expeditions and encouraged voyages by privately funded stock companies. Indeed, the origins of United States constitutionalism can be found in the corporate stock charters granted to the early settlement enterprises.

England entered a new reign with the victory of Henry Tudor in 1485 against Richard III of the York dynasty and ending the War of the Roses (in which much of the nobility had mutually exterminated each other). Also, the end of the Hundred Years’ War had ended England’s possessions in France except for Calais. Henry VII turned to expansion in Ireland and to trans-Atlantic explorations.

Henry  encouraged John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto, 1450-1498), born in Genoa and a citizen of Venice, to explore across the Atlantic in 1497 with a crew that included his three sons. They reached Cape Breton Island. A new round was undertaken by his son, Sebastian Cabot (1476-1557 who undertook expeditions, such as to the Rio de la Plata, in 1525. But, in the reign of Queen Mary and King Philip, he was made governor-for-life of a commercial company to explore a northeast passage to Asia, north of Russia. Archangel was reached in 1553 and trade (in furs) was established through the Grand-Duchy of Muscovy to receive eastern goods from Persia by way of the Volga River and Caspian Sea. The Muscovy Company was the earliest of many stock companies formed by investors for trade overseas, such as the Levant Company (to Ottoman Empire).

By the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, England, France and the Netherlands felt able to challenge the monopolies of the East and West Indies of Portugal and Spain. Spain had taken possession of Portugal and its colonies and Dutch merchants (still under Spanish rule) took advantage to sail to the Portuguese East Indies. Having learned the route, the Dutch decided to set up a company in the Netherlands to trade with the East Indies. Amsterdam had gained commercial importance when Spain’s army in the Netherlands mutinied several times over pay when Spain experienced several national bankruptcies and caused a migration to Amsterdam of merchants from Antwerp and Brussels. The Bank of Amsterdam was created in 1609.

English and French merchants likewise traded with the East Indies. English merchants trading with Muscovy or with the Baltic invested in the East India Company, but also in the Virginia Company and the ill-fated company to settle New England. Ships or ship-captains might return from a voyage to Moluccas and undertake a voyage to Jamestown.

Merchants continued their investments in stock companies engaged in overseas trade, despite the political challenges leading up to and including the English Civil War (1640-60). With the Restoration of Charles II, the king maintained a lavish court (with subsidies from his cousin, Louis XIV) despite ruling without parliament and its added taxes much of the time. Charles II was succeeded by his brother, James II in 1685. But, opposition developed among important elements and James II was deposed in late 1688 (taking refuge with Louis XIV) and replaced by his daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands. William was at war with France and sought English financial support.

The English parliament was not too enthused about paying increased taxes to support William’s war by raising troops. A very important pamphlet debate arose about maintaining a standing army. The House of Commons had evolved since 1290 from mainly merchants representing sea ports and trading towns to rural squires living from agriculture which was the easiest to tax. But the same sea ports and towns were no longer active, often they were part of some estate where the squire or a relative was elected to the Commons (these became known as ‘rotten  boroughs’ as they were essentially empty of population  in comparison to their medieval economic importance).It was politically more palatable to finance a foreign war of a foreign monarch by borrowing the funds so that another generation would bear the burden or by import duties to be paid by the wider population. But, no one would lend to the government, even of the popular William and Mary, because historically rulers had exercised their sovereign rights and repudiated their debts causing the bankruptcies of the creditors.

The concept of the National Debt as a way for current tax-payers to avoid  paying for a foreign war was a winner for politicians. But, no one wished to lend to the government from the experience of repeated repudiation of government debts. However, if investors lent to a corporation which in turn would lend to the government, the investors felt secure that there would be no repudiation. Had they not already executed Charles I in 1649 and exiled his son, James II, in 1688?

The government backed into the creation of the Bank of England. The parliament in 1694 passed “An Act for granting to their Majesties several Rates and Duties upon Tunnages of Ships and Vessels, and upon Beer, Ale and other Liquors: for securing certain Recompenses and Advantages, in the said Act mentioned, to Such persons as shall voluntarily advance the Sum of Fifteen hundred thousand Pounds towards carrying on the war against France.” A tun was a large cask for wine (252 wine gallons); a ton was a weight.

Also, in 1694, the Licensing Act of 1662 (censorship of printed matter) expired, and Lord Chancellor Somers (who was a member of John Locke’s circle)  chose to allow its expiration. England became open to freedom of the press with newspapers and many contesting political pamphlets (William L. Sachse, Lord Somers: A Political Portrait (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1975) pp. 98-99).

The lenders to the government received an interest payment, as well as the privilege to issue paper currency which was opposed by the goldsmiths. In 1709 the bank’s privileges were renewed and it received a monopoly of stock corporation banking in England. For the next century, bankers (country bankers) were limited to partnerships creating limits on size and stability of banking activities.

However, as the war with France dragged on, there was an exhaustion of interest in supporting the war, even by the Bank of England. A new bank was chartered, the South Sea Company, whose value for paper currency was the unknown riches of the yet unexplored Pacific Ocean. (It was an era of new ventures, such those undertaken by the Scots which failed, driving the Scots to accept the Act of Union (May 1, 1707) with England and ending Scotland’s merely personal union with the English monarch. (See W. R. Scott, The Constitution and Finances of English, Scottish and Irish Joint Stock Companies to 1720 (1910-1912). According to Econ Journal Watch-Authors, W. R. Scott (1868-1940) was professor of political economy at University of Glasgow and author of Adam Smith as Student and Professor (1937).)

The South Sea Company offered to take over the National Debt imitating John Law’s Mississippi Company taking over the national debt of France. A speculative bubble ensued: the Mississippi Bubble in France and the South Sea Bubble in England. The bubbles burst in 1720 and many persons suffered loses. Further incorporation of stock companies was forbidden by legislation of parliament.

In France, Louis XV appointed his tutor as the new prime minister, Abbe (soon Cardinal) Fleury. In England, the Bank of England was involved in resolving the problems of the South Sea Bubble. A new ministry in London took over in which Sir Robert Walpole was the prime minister. Walpole and Fleury recognized that the wars were the cause of the national debts and the financial crises; they maintain a policy of détente for two decades creating a low tax regime and the foundation for England’s Industrial Revolution.

Hernando de Soto contributed a column to a series, “Capitalism in Crisis”, in the Financial Times (January 31, 2012). Its title is: “Knowledge lies at the heart of western capitalism.” Although he does not mention F. A. Hayek’s pioneering work on knowledge and economics, de Soto makes a valuable contribution to the subject. His focus is the recent loss of knowledge and exact information on the ownership of widely traded economic assets. He sees the loss of knowledge and information as the foundation of the current economic crisis. He emphasizes that it is a “knowledge crisis.”

He notes that in the 19th and 20th centuries capitalism “gave us the best knowledge to explore economic combinations.” He continues:

“The reason credit and capital have contracted for the past five years in the US and Europe is that the knowledge required to identify and join parts profitably has been unwittingly destroyed. The connections between mortgage loans and liquid securities, between non-performing financial derivatives and the organizations that hold them; the non-standardized, scattered records that obscure who holds risks; and the off-balance-sheet accounting that obscures many companies’ health: these all make it harder to trust and hence combine. Until this knowledge system is repaired, neither US nor European capitalism will recover.”

Clear property rights makes it possible for anyone to seek to take risks to combine tangible and intangible assets: property rights “made it possible for investors to locate suppliers, infer value, take risks and combine such simple things – to borrow a famous example – as graphite from Sri Lanka and wood from Oregon into pencils.” Truth was not being told with “nations masking debt as income by swapping it from one currency to another. No wonder institutions and investors have lost confidence in the system.”

Hernando de Soto concludes:

“The brilliance of western capitalism lies not in providing a formula for wealth creation but in its property memory systems, which are the result of examining, selecting and validating information about who owns land, labour, credit, capital and technology, how they are connected and how they can be profitably recombined.

“For the past 15 years, the records of western capitalism have been debased, leaving governments without the facts to spot what needs to be fixed and for businesses to know where their risks are. To regain its vitality, western capitalism must bring under the rule of law and public memory hundreds of trillions of dollars now swirling mindlessly out of control in the obscure world of financial innovation.”

On January 9, 2012 Anwar Ibrahim (64) was freed by the Malaysia High Court after an eleven month trial. The government has appealed the court’s decision. Meanwhile, the Financial Times (Weekend edition, January 28-29, 2012) interviewed him during a conference on democracy in Bombay, India. Anwar Ibrahim was the deputy prime minister of Malaysia in the 1990s and presumed heir of the long-serving prime minister. Ibrahim had gained international recognition as the finance minister (earlier he was education minister) who had steered a safe-landing during the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Newsweek International named Ibrahim “Asian of the Year” in 1998. The then prime minister blamed the Malaysia crisis on international Jewish finance. The prime minister turned on Ibrahim, had him charged and convicted of improbable crimes and imprisoned in solitary confinement for more than a half dozen years. The prime minister said Ibrahim should be the prime minister of Israel, not Malaysia.

Under a new prime minister he was released. He credits Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan with assisting his release, and reciprocates with praise of Erdogan’s Islamic democratic principles. Ibrahim led an election campaign which gained seats in the parliament for the opposition. The new trial followed the electoral success. Ibrahim formed a coalition of his own party’s liberal, middle class voters, entrepreneurial Chinese and Indians who are legally limited by quota laws favoring the majority Malays, and Moslem voters in rural, traditional provinces. These groups are united by opposition to the corrupt ruling party, and a new election is expected this year. Ibrahim quotes Western thinkers from Shakespeare to John Rawls, and the Koran. Ibrahim is vilified by the ruling party for his friendships with foreigners – “and in particular Jewish foreigners.” He says: “For the past 13 years they have accused me of being a Jewish agent or befriending Jews. In every village during elections these people put up photographs of me and Paul Wolfowitz.”

After his release from solitary confinement, Ibrahim taught abroad at St. Antony’s College, Oxford and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. At that time, he participated in an Atlas Foundation conference on “The Muslim World and the Challenge of Freedom” on June 6, 2005 held at the Foundation for Economic Education. He contributed his insights to “Islam and the Political Economy of Liberty” and to the development of future Atlas Foundation programs focused on Islamic societies. Participants in the conference included Alex Chafuen, Richard Ebeling, Antony Sullivan, Charles Butterworth, and Imad-al-Dean Ahmad among others. Ibrahim, along with John Stossel, toasted freedom at Atlas’ annual Freedom Dinner on November 9, 2005 at the Palace Hotel in New York City. On November 10, 2005 he spoke on “Human Rights: the Economic and Cultural Dimensions” at an Atlas conference at the Yale Club of NYC. Ibrahim was the speaker at the 2006 dinner of the Minaret of Freedom Institute.

On March 19, 2007 Ibrahim was a principal speaker at the Faith and Economics Study Group (Witherspoon Institute, Princeton) at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. His co-speaker was Michel Camdessus, former executive director of the International Monetary Fund, who has praised Ibrahim for solving Malaysia’s 1997 financial crisis. On October 16, 20007 Ibrahim was the keynote speaker at the Symposium of the State of West-Islamic Dialogue sponsored by Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. (It was held in Copley Lounge (in the dorm building in which I lived for two years) where I presided over lectures of the International Relations Club of which I was president and where I sat as a member of the GU Student Council.)

The above image is Ibrahim speaking at the Foundation for Economic Education event.

For a few days in April 2012, Galt’s Gulch in Colorado will become a reality. Principled friends of liberty from more than 30 countries will assemble in Colorado Springs to enjoy an “Atlas Experience” – great ideas and great speakers, including Gabriel Calzada, incoming president of Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala as the keynote speaker for the Fisher Award dinner. Online registrations will be posted mid-February. Hotel reservations can be made in the Atlas block rooms for $225/night by calling 791.577.5775

Broadmoor Hotel:
1 Lake Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Rooms can be reserved in the Atlas block for $225/night by calling 791.577.5775.

Keynote Speaker
Gabriel Calzada, the incoming president of Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala will be giving the keynote at the Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Awards Dinner.

Registration options:
Registration will be posted in mid-February.

Individual Registration: $275
Individual Half Day: $75

Think Tank Registration (limited to think tank employees): $150
Half Day: $75

Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Awards Dinner only: $100

Foreign Policy magazine (January-February 2012) lists Zbigniew Brzezinski among the five most important living influences on US foreign policy. In the weekend Financial Times (January 14-15, 2012), Edward Luce (FT’s chief US commentator) describes his recent luncheon interview with the former National Security Advisor under President Jimmy Carter and current trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. After 1981, he continued in Washington as a professor at Georgetown University. Over his Dubonnet, he begins with his disappointment with President Barak Obama: “I’m all in favor of grand important speeches but the president then has to link his sermons to a strategy.” Although he has voted for Republican presidential candidates (such as George H. W. Bush in 1988) he is highly doubtful of the current Republican candidates. Compared to how well informed about the world he considers Chinese leaders: “And then you watch one of our Republican presidential debates …. The GOP field is just embarrassing.”

Brzezinski is 83 years old and was born in Warsaw. His father was a diplomat and Brzezinski spent his first three years in Paris and the next three in Berlin. His father was assigned to the embassy in Canada, so the family remained there when World War II began. He attributes his skills to attending Loyola High School in Montreal. (My graduate professor at Fordham University, Oskar Halecki (who had been secretary of the Polish delegation at the Versailles conference and then dean of Warsaw University) was a visiting professor at Grenoble University when the war began and was fortunate to move to Laval University in Quebec before the invasion of France.)

I first became aware of Brzezinski when I was working for the William Volker Fund assigned to read journal articles or books that might relate to its scholarly program. I extensively reviewed a book of Brzezinski written (c. 1961) (when he was at Harvard University) on the economic system of the Soviet Bloc. I recommended the book as knowledgeable and insightful.

He was appointed a professor of international relations at Columbia University. He became an advisor to Hubert Humphrey’s vice-presidential campaign and defended Lyndon B. Johnson’s war in Vietnam on the basis of the ‘Falling Dominos’ theory (if South Vietnam came under the Viet Cong, then Thailand, Malaya, Indonesia would become Communist.) (That theory arose in the 1950s: that Japan would want to trade with Red China if communists blocked Japan’s markets in Southeast Asia. Japan was trading with China through third countries, so the theory was questionable.)

Brzezinski opposed Republican senators critical of Johnson’s war. Senators Sterling Morton of Kentucky and Mark Hatfield of Oregon led the revival of the Republican party with over forty new Republican congressmen in 1966.

To him, today’s America appears to lack education in world politics. He sees a US failure in history and geography (French education always twined geography and history). “Americans don’t learn about the world, they don’t study world history, other than American history in a very one-sided fashion, and they don’t study geography. In that context of widespread ignorance, the ongoing and deliberately fanned fear about the outside world, which is connected with this grandiose war on jihadi terrorism, makes the American public extremely susceptible to extremist appeals.”

Fifty years ago when I began as a college instructor, there was a textbook which combined European and American history. However, as I was teaching fifteen hours a week the course in World Civilizations there was a dilemma. The chairman of the history and government department was a Viennese who had studied Japanese in the US army. He selected a textbook which went beyond European civilization to include: Hindu, Chinese, Japanese , etc. I had no background in those areas and told my five classes to ignore those chapters. American students have a hard enough time with European names, trying to have them or myself master exotic names was not education but chaos. I am reminded of one of my colleagues, a Chinese refugee from Red China, who upset his students of Chinese history when he later explained that the first seven dynasties they had struggled to learn were mythical.

Brzezinski considers America’s greatest national security threat to be the weak US economic situation, especially the political failure to address the government’s economic problems. His strategic advice: “the US should prod Europe to bring both Russia and Turkey into an enlarged west. America should hedge against China’s rise, without explicitly attempting to contain it. Most importantly, the US should revitalize its domestic economy if it wants to stave off further decline. On all counts, Brzezinski seems pessimistic about the likelihood that Washington’s elites will start to act strategically again.”

• Centro Para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de America Latina (CADAL) won the 2011 Fancisco di Vitoria Prize for a Latin American think tank promoting human rights. A large portion of CADAL’s work focuses on human rights in politics.  Father Francisco de Vitoria, a XVIth century scholar, saw free-trade and private property as essential human rights.   CADAL continues to promote a free economy across the region and a considerable portion of its work focuses on human rights in the political arena.
• Junior Achievement Argentina won the 2011 Alberto Marten Prize for its work with social entrepreneurship. Junior Achievement in Argentina was founded by former Atlas fellow Eduardo Marty, and its efforts to promote entrepreneurship are having a positive effect in creating an entrepreneurial spirit to solve social problems.
• Libertad y Desarrollo, Chile, earned the 2011 Miguel Kast prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty for it’s book “Seven for Seven,” which details the cases of seven schools in undeveloped areas who provide high quality education to their students. The book shows how despite adversity and working with poverty-stricken areas, these educational establishments have been able to successfully provide high quality educations. They have achieved this high quality by involving the whole community in the success of these schools, providing incentives for professors in terms of student attendance and results, as well as having strategically planned yearly goals and objectives. As the late Sir John Templeton often remarked, indirect solutions to poverty have proven more effective than direct support.  Improving education is one of these indirect solutions and is an essential tool for enabling all to have a better life.  LyD won the prize for its publications and research focusing on educational reform.
• Democracia y Mercado won the 2011 Latin American award for Innovative media for their production of a series of documentaries of entrepreneurs overcoming obstacles to successfully serve their consumers. These documentaries show case studies of entrepreneurs who have succeeded in their respective countries and industries by overcoming obstacles, relying on their creativity and alertness for opportunity and successfully serving their consumers.  DyM has produced documentaries in six countries in the past two years including Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. Due to the program’s success they plan to film in five more countries in 2012.
• The Instituto de Pensmiento Estrategico Agora (IPEA) has won the Marroquin Award for Student Outreach. This Mexican think tank has worked throughout the year with student chapters in different universities to develop a research document that provides public policy recommendations for the Mexico.  Each group worked separately on their specific topic under the supervision of IPEA’s lead economist. At the end of the process they created a single document based on these recommendations. During 2012 they will approach policymakers and other institutions in hopes of raising the youth’s voice and influencing social change in the country.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcMSM560KvE

And yet, Shelton argues the story of sound money in America has been an incremental slide away from these foundations in the name of political expediency. “[W]e need to end the practice of having our “elastic” currency serve as the default mechanism for government fiscal irresponsibility,” she writes.

Easier said than done? Shelton offers five complementary approaches weighed carefully and tailored for today’s window of political possibility. Ranging from a reexamination of the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate to a responsible return to gold convertibility, Shelton’s solutions represent a bold yet well-reasoned challenge to today’s leaders in Washington.

About the Author – Judy Shelton

Judy Shelton is an economist with expertise in global finance and monetary issues. She is co-Director of the Sound Money Project at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Author of The Coming Soviet Crash (1989),  Money Meltdown (1994) and Fixing the Dollar Now (2011), her international economics articles have been published by The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Nihon Keizai Shimbun and El Economista. Dr. Shelton holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Utah.

Read Judy’s full bio.

“Dr. Shelton offers here a much-needed education on the historical roots of sound money in America and, in so doing, secures the foundation for real world solutions tailored to the problems our nation faces now. Members of Congress, take note!”

-Larry Kudlow, Host of CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report”

“At once bold and practical, sophisticated and straightforward, this concise study is a must-read for all would-be reformers of our broken monetary system. And in showing us how to fix the dollar, Judy Shelton points the way to deeper principles of reform for our troubled polity and economy.”

-William Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard

“In this concise, elegant and irrefutably argued book, Judy Shelton shows exactly how to make the dollar sound again. May the next president of the United States, along with the next secretary of the Treasury, read every word.”

-James Grant, Editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

“America’s economy is near collapse in large part because of Washington’s failure to support sound monetary policy. Fixing the Dollar Now is a proven prescription for restoring American prosperity.”

-Jim DeMint, U.S. Senator, South Carolina

To order large quantities or for other special requests, contact Matt Warner at Matt.Warner@AtlasNetwork.org. To learn more about the Sound Money Project, visit SoundMoneyProject.org.

Special thanks to the Searle Freedom Trust for financing this book.

Now In it’s 5^th year, the Atlas Think Tank MBA Training Program is meant to train and inspire talented individuals to become successful “Intellectual Entrepreneurs (IE)” who can effectively advance Atlas’s vision of a free society. Approximately 20 – 25 think tank leaders from across the globe participate in this 10 day program, which will be held in Fairfax, Virginia April 13 – 24, 2012.

The program draws from both private sector and non-profit instructors who have applied expertise in topics that we have identified as key to developing and managing an effective think tank. The curriculum also includes case studies from different parts of the world (we anticipate that the majority of participants will be from outside the U.S.) in order to demonstrate the cross-cultural importance of these “best practices,” and to instill confidence that the participants can emulate these examples in their own countries.

The training program is divided into six modules, which include:

1. Strategic Thinking – This module emphasizes the importance of developing a sound business plan for your institute, and includes drafting a situational appraisal and S.W.O.T. analysis, as well as evaluation and measurement techniques to assess your performance as a think tank.

2. Strategic Communication and New Media – This module emphasizes the understanding and importance of working with media as well as properly crafting your message to your targeted audience.  This will include some technical instruction on both website design and effective social networking.

3. Group Campaigns – This module is a practical application exercise in which teams will design, plan, execute, and present a collaborative group project on a policy/advocacy issue of your choice.  This module allows participants to work collaboratively with one another to apply what has been taught up to this point.

4. Fundraising – This module teaches the basics of growing and sustaining a donor base by developing fundraising tools and crafting a sales pitch for your institute.  This will include topics such as donor prospecting, proposal writing, direct mail, high-end relational fundraising and how to use your board in relation to fundraising.

5. Leadership Development – This module will introduce ingredients for how to build a high-performing team – with sessions on personnel management, leadership styles, and case studies on successful think tanks and think tank leaders.

6. Operational Management – This module covers the “nuts and bolts” that support a smoothly functioning institute, including the role of the board, legal governance, financial stewardship; and office structure.
Participants of the training will leave with the beginnings of a comprehensive Strategic Plan tailored for the needs of their organization or project.

The entire program will take place at the Hyatt Fair Lakes in Fairfax, VA and the closest airport is Dulles International Airport, VA.

Hyatt Fair Lakes
12777 Fair Lakes Circle
Fairfax, VA 22033
United States
(703) 818-1234

Participants of the Think Tank MBA program also have the opportunity to attend the Atlas Experience, and Heritage Resource Bank meetings taking place from April 25-26th in Colorado Springs, While these events are not mandatory, these meetings do provide valuable networking opportunities. More information about the Atlas Experience will be available online shortly.

Registration for this valuable training is $500 – which covers the cost of the training, shared lodging, all course  materials, and the majority of meals during the training as well as the trip to Colorado Springs. Participants are responsible for additional costs associated with attending this event, including transportation to and from the training.

Apply to the Think Tank MBA 2012 NOW!

For more information, contact Cindy Cerquitella at cindy.cerquitella@atlasnetwork.org

Many thanks for putting together one of the most productive managerial programs I have experienced. The Atlas TTMBA was in some ways more organized than my program at Harvard.

–Franklin Cudjoe, IMANI, Class of 2011

I found the program very useful for developing a detailed business plan and strategy for our think tank. We were exposed to best practices and now I have a very good idea about what it takes to run a professionally managed think tank (as a business).

–Lius Loria, ANFE, Class of 2011

Sometimes, the U.S. think tanks get stuck in groupthink – and our international colleagues help provide a fresh perspective on our policy battles that is sorely needed!
It was an honor to work alongside policy leaders who are truly fighting on the front lines of freedom in extremely challenging circumstances. Their enthusiasm and optimism was revitalizing.

–Nicki Kurokawa, Independent Woman’s Forum, Class of 2011

Spending two intense weeks with excellent teachers and extraordinary young leaders and freedom fighters from 21 countries was one of the most fulfilling events of my life.

–Augstin Erchebarne, Libertad y Progreso, Class of 2011

Organizational Alumni of TTMBA 2008-2011

CADAL, Argentina
Libertad y Progresso, Argentina
Fundacion Bases, Argentina
Fundacion Libertad, Argentina
Instituto Acton Argentina, Argentina
Free Minds Association, Azerbaijan
Center for Policy Initiative, Bahamas
Minsk Mises Center, Belarus
Libera!, Belgium
Murray Rothbard Institute, Belgium
Fundacion Nueva Democracia, Bolivia
POPULI, Bolivia
Institute for Market Economics, Bulgaria
Alberta Enterprise Group, Canada
Canadian Constitution Foundation, Canada
Manning Centre, Canada
Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Canada
Frontier Center for Public Policy, Canada
Institute for Liberal Studies, Canada
Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, China
Instituto Ciencia Politica, Colombia
ANFE, Costa Rica
Ecuadorian Institute of Political Economy, Ecuador
Fundacion Ecuador Libre, Ecuador
Latina Seguros, Ecuador
Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth, Egypt
Liberte Cherie, France
New Economic School-Georgia, Georgia
Citizens Network for Democracy and Economic Development, Ghana
IMANI Ghana, Ghana
Universidad Francisco Marroquin,  Guatemala
The Lion Rock Institute,  Hong Kong
Centre for Civil Society,  India
Centre for Public Policy Research, India
Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
Central Asian Free Market Institute, Kyrgyzstan
OHRID Institute,  Macedonia
IDEAS, Malaysia
Instituto de Pensamiento Estrategico Agora A.C., Mexico
RELIAL, Mexico
EBI Think Tank, Mongolia
New Policy Institute, Mongolia
Center for Mozambican and International Studies, Mozambique
Samriddhi Prosperity Foundation, Nepal
FUNIDES, Nicaragua
AfricaLiberty.org, Nigeria
Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan
PalThink for Strategic Studies, Palestine
IPL Instituto para la Libertad, Peru
Civil Development Forum, Poland
Instytut Misesa, Poland
Project Lodz, Poland
CADI Center for Institutional Analysis and Development, Romania
FA Hayek Foundation, Slovakia
INESS – Institute of Economic and Social Studies, Slovakia
Fundacion Bases, Spain
Institucion Futuro, Spain
Timbro, Sweden
Medecine & Liberty, Switzerland
Center for Prosperity and Economic Liberty, Tanzania
E-Fulusi AfricaLimited, Tanzania
Association for Liberal Thinking, Turkey
Inter Region Economic Network, Uganda
Ukrainian Reform Support Foundation, Ukraine
Adam Smith Institute, United Kingdom
Institute of Economic Affairs, United Kingdom
TaxPayers Alliance, United Kingdom
Bluegrass Institute, United States
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, United States
Independent Women’s Forum, United States
Pacific Legal Foundation, United States
Tennessee Center for Policy Research, United States
Texas Public Policy Foundation, United States
The Maine Heritage Policy Center, United States
Rio Grande Foundation, United States
The Prometheus Institute, United States
Caesar Rodney Institute, United States
Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia, United States
Sunshine Review, United States
Students For Liberty,  United States
CEDICE,  Venezuela
Committee for the Economic Development of Zimbabwe,  Zimbabwe

Apply to the Think Tank MBA 2012 NOW !

For more information, contact Cindy Cerquitella at cindy.cerquitella@atlasnetwork.org