PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

PPI WEEKLY WRAP-UP: PPI in Europe, State AGs Abusing Power, & U.S. App Economy Capitol Hill Briefing

  • February 26, 2016
  • The Progressive Policy Institute

PPI IN EUROPE: PPI Chief Economic Strategist Dr. Michael Mandel was in Brussels this week, where he was invited to speak at an event on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the Digital Single Market. The event was sponsored by the Swedish, Finnish, Irish and Estonian Permanent Missions to the European Union. While there, he and PPI Executive Director Lindsay Lewis held several meetings with the European Commission.

STATE AGs ABUSING POWER: In an op-ed for RealClearPolicy, Phil Goldberg, Director of the Civil Justice Center at PPI, details the evolution of the role of state attorney general over the last 20 years from mere law enforcer to general policymaker:

“Today, both Democratic and Republican AGs use litigation and the powers of the office to regulate. But with this new responsibility comes new opportunities to breach the public trust.

“A particularly alarming development is AGs’ increasing use of private law firms to sue companies under no-bid contracts where the firms get percentages of the settlements or awards. These arrangements were born out of tobacco litigation in the 1990s and have spread to all sorts of actions, leading to several scandals over the connections between AGs and the firms they hire.

“An aggressive way to address the politicization of the state AG is to have the AG selected by the governor, rather than through a popular election where he or she must raise campaign funds. The states that select their chief law enforcement officers this way have seen fewer scandals. For now, though, states should adopt legislation such as [the Transparency in Private Attorney Contract Act] to ensure that law-enforcement actions brought on behalf of the state put the public good above private profits.”

U.S. APP ECONOMY CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING: Please join PPI and TechNet next Thursdayfor a Capitol Hill breakfast briefing on “App Economy Jobs in the United States.” The event will feature remarks by Congressman Mike Bishop (R-MI), followed by a panel discussion featuring:

  • Dr. Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist, PPI
  • Terry Howerton, CEO, TechNexus Venture Collaborative
  • Ron Klain, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Revolution, LLC
  • Linda Moore, President & CEO, TechNet
  • Brendan Peter, Vice President, Global Government Relations, CA Technologies
  • Karl Rectanus, CEO, Lea(R)n
Thursday, March 3, 2016
10AM to 11:30AM
2226 Rayburn House Office Building
 
RSVP to rsvp@technet.org

Related Work

Budget Breakdown  |  June 26, 2025

GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Would Undermine Economic Stability

  • Ben Ritz Alex Kilander Nate Morris
Blog  |  June 26, 2025

“Trump Accounts” Are a Promising Start, But Flaws Remain

  • Alex Kilander
Feature  |  June 25, 2025

At NATO Summit, Allies Avoid Tensions with Trump

  • Tamar Jacoby
Blog  |  June 24, 2025

Strikes Without Competent Diplomacy Risk Open-Ended Conflict in the Middle East

  • Peter Juul
Op-Ed  |  June 18, 2025

Weinstein Jr. for Forbes: It’s The Early 1990s Bond Market Again

  • Paul Weinstein Jr.
Budget Breakdown  |  June 18, 2025

Senate Changes to House Reconciliation Bill Are a Mixed Bag

  • Ben Ritz Nate Morris
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2025 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings