On this episode of RAS Reports, PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools Project Co-Director Tressa Pankovits sits down for a conversation with Starlee Coleman, the new President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The pair discuss the future of the charter school movement in the wake of the election, as well as Coleman’s priorities for the organization now that she’s taken over as CEO.
Category: Uncategorized
Manno for Discourse Magazine: Creating More Earn-and-Learn Apprenticeships
As the public sours on the value of a college degree as the default pathway to success, it’s sweetening on the value of multiple pathways to success, especially earn-and-learn models such as apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are the new learning campuses, where paid work and education combine to jump-start careers.
Vice President Kamala Harris captured this sentiment during her 2024 presidential campaign: “For far too long, our nation has encouraged only one path to success: a four-year college degree. Our nation needs to recognize the value of other paths—additional paths, such as apprenticeships and technical programs.” I call this approach to creating additional paths to success opportunity pluralism.
This week, the nation celebrates the 10th annual National Apprenticeship Week. As we commemorate this celebration, it’s useful to take a look at America’s growing appetite for an increasing array of earn-and-learn apprenticeship programs.
Keep reading in Discourse Magazine.
Brown for RealClearEnergy: Climate Justice for Thee But Not for Me
Berkeley, California is arguably the most liberal city in the U.S. Tourist shops sell t-shirts touting its identity as a leftist hub. The city is overwhelmingly white and wealthy, with large Asian and small Black minority populations, a median household income over $100,000, and median home value of nearly $1.3 million. When we think of the liberal elite, we think of Berkeley. So when residents last week voted down a new fossil fuel tax, it came as a rude surprise to green activists across the country.
On the Berkeley ballot this November was a local initiative that would have imposed a heavy tax on large buildings that used natural gas for heating, cooking, and for other purposes. Proponents argued that the measure would help rid us of fossil fuel use, following a trend across the country in which climate activists look for every opportunity to shut down natural gas.
In a resounding rebuke, Berkeley voters rejected the ballot measure 68% to 32%, sending the message that they were not interested in sacrificing their use of natural gas for any climate benefit that they thought it would net. To soothe their nagging climate conscience, donations to environmental activists will surely flow forth from Berkeley. The ability to avoid any sacrifice in the name of climate change only to demand those sacrifices from other, less wealthy communities is an environmentalist privilege that does not go unnoticed by working class Americans.
Keep reading in RealClearEnergy.
Juul for Space News: Don’t Let Trump and Musk Gut NASA
If President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk get their way, NASA may become a glorified contracting agency.
As Musk promises the American public “temporary hardship” as he looks to cut some $2 trillion from the federal budget — the equivalent of all spending outside Social Security, Medicare and interest on the national debt — Trump’s top space advisers talk openly about funneling even more public money to Musk’s SpaceX. If actually implemented, such proposals would give Musk a de facto monopoly over America’s commercial space industry, stifle healthy competition that fuels technological innovation and demoralize an already overtaxed NASA workforce.
Never mind that SpaceX remains well behind schedule when it comes to delivering a lunar lander derived from its Starship vehicle, or that it’ll need an as-yet untried on-orbit refueling method to reach the moon.
This reality makes it ludicrous to suggest, as Trump space adviser Greg Autry has done, that NASA simply contract out a human Mars mission to SpaceX. To put it bluntly, the company has not demonstrated the technical competence required to execute even less demanding missions.
NASA remains an irreplaceable and indispensable public agency. If Trump and Musk hollow it out, however, the United States will quickly find itself without any viable space program.
Keep reading in Space News.
Gresser in The Washington Post: Love buying cheap stuff online? Thank a law that avoids Trump’s tariffs
It’s not clear what might happen when Trump takes office. He has discussed significantly increasing tariffs on products imported from China. If that happens, many more companies would probably try to save money by latching onto the tariff-free rule used by Temu, Shein and Amazon Haul.
“The higher the tariff on something, then the more attractive it becomes to find some way around it,” said Ed Gresser, a former U.S. trade official now with the Progressive Policy Institute. “De minimis is a legal way around it.”
Gresser, whose group generally opposes tariffs, believes that if the Trump administration expands tariffs, it would also want to change or end the tariff-free shipping rule.
Read more in The Washington Post.
Manno for Forbes: Lessons Starting K-12 Chartered Schools Can Help Create More Apprenticeships
National Apprenticeship Week is November 17 to 23
“Businesses don’t launch and run apprenticeships on their own. What America needs most is a thousand intermediaries working hard to make apprenticeship infrastructure where there was none before,” writes Achieve Managing Partner Ryan Craig in his book Apprenticeship Nation.
Apprenticeship intermediaries connect and serve the partner organizations that create earn-and-learn apprenticeship programs. The work of establishing lots of good ones has much to learn from the 33-year-old effort to create a new chartered sector of U.S. K-12 public schools.
National Apprenticeship Week is a suitable time to review what apprenticeship intermediaries do and suggest four lessons learned from the charter school movement that are relevant to expanding the number of intermediaries. I hope that this encourages a more thorough conversation between those from the world of chartering and the world of apprenticing that helps both groups become more effective at what they do.
Read more in Forbes.
Manno for Philanthropy Daily: Yes, Charter Schools Do Reduce Inequality
This is the first article of a two-part series on charter schools. The second will appear on 11/20/24 and is titled “What Donors Should Know About Evaluating Charter Schools.”
There is glaring student achievement inequality in America’s public schools. Rigorous evidence suggests that “a substantial portion of the unequal education outcomes that we see between richer and poor students is related not to home, but to what happens in school.” Charter schools are reducing that inequality by closing achievement gaps between groups and improving outcomes for all students.
Since 1991, 46 charter laws have created 8,000 schools and campuses that enroll 3.7 million students, around 7.5% of all public school students. Enrollment in these independent public school of choice that are accountable for results is increasing while traditional district school enrollment is decreasing. For example, over the five years from 2019-2020 to 2023-2024, charter enrollment grew by around 12% or 393,000 students, while district enrollment decreased by around 4% or 1,750,000 students. Around six out of 10 (58%) charter schools are in urban areas, with the remainder in suburbs (25%), rural areas (11%), and smaller towns (6%).
Has this charter growth harmed traditional public schools? And how can we be sure that charter schools are meeting the needs of students who most need help?
Over the last 18 months, four national and two state reports on charter schools were released. In what follows, I summarize those reports, providing more evidence of a dynamic, self-improving charter sector that reduces student academic inequality.
Keep reading in Philanthropy Daily.
Jacoby for Forbes: Ukrainians Wait For Trump To Transform The War, For Better Or Worse
With Donald Trump’s reelection roiling capitals across Europe and Asia, in Ukraine, where many expect the new administration to make the most dramatic changes to U.S. policy, the mood is mixed, at once anxious and surprisingly hopeful.
“No one is committing suicide,” Anton Grushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a leading polling firm, told me in an interview. “For Ukrainians, this is an existential war. Russia wants to eliminate us and destroy our country, and we can’t just give up.” But as the fighting grinds on, with no victory in sight, many are considering a different approach.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan,” presented to Trump earlier this fall, includes several planks designed to appeal to what is expected to be the new administration’s transactional approach to foreign policy. And many voices, on social media and in parliament, are emphasizing what Kyiv should do in the months ahead to strengthen its hand in anticipation of a Trump presidency.
Keep reading in Forbes.
Liberalism is worth defending.
FACT: Liberalism is worth defending.
THE NUMBERS: PPI’s Trade Fact emails since 2021 – 157
WHAT THEY MEAN:
We re-started this “Trade Fact” service just over three years ago, in October 2021. Here’s our opening paragraph:
“PPI re-launches this Trade Fact series under the political equivalent of storm warnings and lowering clouds, in the U.S and worldwide. Looking abroad, publics appear more tempted than at any time in decades to believe that their country’s gain must entail another’s loss. Looking inward, they seem increasingly at risk from authoritarian populists and illiberal political parties. And on a different level of analysis, trust among big-power governments has eroded; and the institutions and agreements built up since the Second World War to safeguard security and promote shared growth — whether NATO, the World Trade Organization, the European Union — accordingly seem ever more fragile.”
Events since have amplified the alarm we felt then. Last week’s election is very much among them, and we expect to say a lot about its implications in the coming weeks and months. Today in this 157th Trade Fact edition, though, we’d like to look back at some of the reasons we believe the election ended as it did, and then offer a thought about our own next steps.
First, though, a note of appreciation for President Biden. Through a half-century in public life, he set an example of good character, family values, commitment to public service, belief in American policy as a force for good in the world, and respect for democracy and the rule of law. In office these last four years, he very much lived up to the President’s role as the public face of the United States to the world, and as a role model for American young people. These qualities are easy to take for granted, but badly missed when they’re absent. Our friends who served in his administration — including a number of young PPI alumni — should be proud of their work.
Now to reflect on last week. The administration was aware of the drift of working-class American opinion toward radical-right populism, and wanted to respond with economic policies focused on working-class aspiration. Here, though, we had major differences with some of the choices it made, and believe our concerns were well-founded. We raise this not (or not only) to record dissent on important matters now in the past, but because we believe American liberalism now needs a very different approach. PPI President Will Marshall’s op-ed last Friday in The Hill looks at this in some depth, covering issues from student loan forgiveness and anti-trust to the gap between the large spending bills designed for specific national goals — for instance, on rural broadband deployment — and the slow, inefficient delivery of services hampered by bureaucracy, permitting rules, and unnecessary interest-group benefits.
Trade policy and America’s place in the global economy, the core focus of this “Trade Fact” series, are an important example. In attempting to understand working-class concerns and designing a response to them, the White House relied heavily on advice from officials of industrial unions and academic-left theorizers about “alternatives to neoliberalism,” and made a sharp break with the liberal-internationalist tradition of economic policy. Announced as doctrine in an ill-starred 2023 National Security Council speech, in practice this mainly meant decisions not to act: keeping the Trump administration’s tariffs in place and continuing its decision to block renewal of the WTO’s Appellate Body, renouncing market access for U.S. exporters as a goal and deciding against an affirmative China trade policy, letting the Generalized System of Preferences lapse, and dropping historic U.S. positions on promotion of digital trade and free flows of data.
Though these decisions did distinguish the Biden administration from the — politically and economically successful — Clinton and Obama eras, they didn’t work. Taken individually, they meant missed chances to promote growth and take full advantage of America’s strengths, particularly in new technologies; to reduce the cost of living for working families and offset the inflationary effect of the Trump-era tariffs; to help lower-income countries grow and reduce poverty; to promote the rule of law in the global economy; and to strength American alliances. Taken as a whole, as we warned immediately after the 2023 speech, the approach conceded so much ground to Trumpist isolationism that even Vice President Harris’ valiant and often inspirational fall campaign, with its concise, forceful, and entirely accurate attack on Mr. Trump’s proposed tariff hikes as a national sales tax, couldn’t win it all back.
Looking ahead, we will need a different strategy. In the coming months and years, PPI will argue for a return to a revived liberal-internationalist tradition, updated to address the economic, technological, environmental, and national security challenges of the later 2020s and 2030s and matched by appropriate domestic policies. At the same time, to the extent the incoming administration implements the neo-isolationism and resentful economic nationalism its campaign promised, we will be sharp critics and will catalog its results as they come in. In both areas, the commitment of our launch statement to liberal values — open markets and liberty, to activist but efficient and low-cost government, to special concern for the poor, to American leadership in the world — is unshaken. Here’s our optimistic close from the 2021 launch, which we believe holds up today:
“To ignore storm warnings and lowering clouds is reckless. The proper response to them is to identify those parts of a roof or a wall that may leak or give way in heavy weather, shore up their weaknesses or replace them with something better. It is equally important, however, to identify areas of strength, build upon them, and draw on the lessons they offer. In such things one can see breaks in the clouds, patches of sunlight ahead, and foundation for PPI’s belief that the liberal project remains vital, successful, and worth defending.”
FURTHER READING
Will Marshall in The Hill last Friday.
Trade Project highlights from these past three years:
Ed Gresser on the successes and gaps of Bidenomics.
… and the ominous error of the 2023 departure from liberal internationalism.
Laura Duffy on tariffs as a poor form of taxation.
Yuka Hayashi on “near-shoring,” Japan’s heavy-industry investment in U.S. production, and pooling allied strengths.
Elaine Wei and Gresser on the anti-female bias of U.S. clothing tariffs.
Malena Daily and Gresser on duty-free cyberspace.
And some Trade Fact Highlights, from high-seas pirate attacks and sexism in underwear tariffs to vanilla cultivation, forced labor, toasters, U.S.-Mexican auto trade, Arctic sea ice cover, tiger recovery in Thailand, the U.S.’ poor 21st-century infant mortality record, submarine cable and satellite deployment, Pacific Island trade strategy, U.S. digital-economy growth, international manufacturers in Ohio and container ship launches, bluebirds, earthworms, tall buildings, Lao v. Sima Qian in the first-ever globalization debate, and Valentine’s Day roses.
ABOUT ED
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.
Read the full email and sign up for the Trade Fact of the Week.
Brown for RealClearPolitics: Bernie Sanders Screams, ‘More Cowbell!’
As Americans voted decisively for a candidate who explicitly rejects nearly everything that Bernie Sanders advocates, Vermont’s senior senator insists that the Democratic Party just wasn’t liberal enough. The mindset of the far left seems to be that the working class just needs more of what they just voted against. For Bernie, the answer is always, “more cowbell.”
Four years ago, the United States elected “Scranton Joe,” a pragmatic with a long record of achievement in the Senate and the Obama administration attained through compromise and common sense. On economic issues, Joe Biden presented himself as a pro-energy, pro-growth, pro-worker – old-school Democrat. He made a point of eschewing the left’s “defund the police” fever and ended his speeches by saying, “May God bless our troops.” Americans were yearning for what he offered and elected him as a serious and pragmatic alternative to a chaotic Trump.
Then came the Elizabeth Warren camp. From day one, the Biden administration was flooded with operatives from the Bernie/Liz left wing of the Democratic Party. What ensued was an overt shift from Scranton Joe’s campaign promises to policies for and by the liberal elite. Like those annoying clothing labels that are itchy and unnecessary, the Sanders/Warren brand was sewn into nearly every policy that came out of the White House.
Keep reading in RealClearPolitics.
Moss in TicketNews: Will the Election Impact Live Nation’s Antitrust Case?
Will the new occupant of the White House continue the legal effort to shatter the alleged monopoly at the core of live entertainment?
“DOJ’s case against Live Nation stands a good chance of surviving a transition in administration intact,” says Diana Moss of the Progressive Policy Institute. “This contrasts with the other digital tech monopolization cases on deck at the anti-trust agencies. Live Nation’s demonstrated anticompetitive practices present more familiar territory for the courts in terms of bringing strong theory and facts, so a win is likely and that looks good politically.
“Moreover,” Moss continues, “fan and artist outrage over high fees and no choice in ticketing would be hard for any administration to ignore.”
While much of the media coverage of the current election has centered around how divided the country seems in its decision between the dueling candidates, it is apparent that one of the safest bipartisan issues out there is outrage against Ticketmaster and its corporate parent. Attorneys General from 39 states plus the District of Columbia signed on as co-plaintiffs with the Department of Justice in the antitrust case, representing an overwhelming majority of the population, from states as blue as California and red as Mississippi.
Read more in TicketNews.
Jacoby Interview for New Eastern Europe: It May Become a Lonely Fight for Ukraine
Interview with Tamar Jacoby, American reporter and the Kyiv-based director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s New Ukraine Project. Interviewer: Iwona Reichardt.
IWONA REICHARDT: You have just returned from the United States, where you were observing the final stages of the presidential campaign. Then you came back to Europe, specifically to Ukraine where you spent election night when the results came in. Were you surprised by the news that Donald Trump won?
TAMAR JACOBY: I was – it was a punch in the gut. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. Now that I look at the results, I think we all should have seen it coming. We told ourselves it was 50-50, but it wasn’t 50-50. Trump won by a significant margin. I don’t blame the polling – I don’t think that’s the main problem. I think that people just didn’t want to see a Trump victory coming. I certainly didn’t want to see it. Now we need to accept that Americans have embraced Donald Trump.
It’s hard to understand why exactly. Is it that voters don’t believe he’ll do all the crazy things he says he will do? Or is it that they really just don’t like the direction that Democrats were taking the country? Why this wholehearted embrace? I’m still struggling to understand it. But clearly Americans have embraced Trump, and we are going to have to accept the choice and live with it for four years.
Keep reading in New Eastern Europe.
Brown for Progressive Post: Learn to Listen
US working-class voters have sent a clear message to Democrats. Running as a centrist and governing as a leftist is not acceptable. Will Democrats listen and learn?
There are many lessons to be learned from this most recent US election and many contributing factors for the Democratic loss: the communication ecosystems are thriving on the right; misinformation through social media platforms is rampant; there was a lack of vigour in pursuing accountability at the Department of Justice; and perhaps some minor but cumulatively important tactical missteps in a very well-run Democratic campaign. All of these issues and more led to a decisive loss for the Democratic Party.
The most important lesson, however, is the one that working-class voters are teaching us. There is a real danger that the Democratic Party will misunderstand the lesson and fail the test in future elections. We have already heard from very loud voices on the far left that Democrats were not far left enough. Bernie Sanders has made his case for this perspective and is getting some traction for this opinion. Working-class voters decisively voted for Trump, a man who explicitly rejects almost everything that Senator Sanders stands for. Somehow, Sanders now argues that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class by not giving them more of what they just voted against.
Keep reading in Progressive Post.
Marshall for The Hill: Democrats Pay the Price for Ignoring Working Americans
Having fired Donald Trump in 2020, U.S. voters did an about-face Tuesday and sent him back to the White House. It was a remarkable political rebound, but one that owed as much to the Democratic Party’s weakness as it did to Trump’s strengths.
Despite heavily outspending her opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris carried not one battleground state in failing to reassemble the solid anti-Trump majority of four years ago. She also lagged behind Joe Biden’s 2020 performance with key Democratic-leaning groups: young voters, Hispanics, Blacks and even women.
The demographic and geographic sweep of Trump’s victory is impressive. He made inroads among urban and suburban voters, independents, young men and non-white working-class voters. The U.S. political map is getting redder.
Most importantly, Trump improved his 2020 performance with Hispanics by 25 points, despite his dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants. Overall, he won 46 percent of the Hispanic vote, the most ever for a Republican presidential candidate.
The electorate’s rightward shift has sparked heady talk among Republicans about a new U.S. political alignment around education level and social class rather than traditional left-right polarities. It certainly is a rebuke to the left, which has been hailing the advent of a new progressive majority for much of this century.
Read more in The Hill.
PPI’s Bruno Manno Submits Testimony to the DC Council on Proposed Bill 25-741 Vocational Education for a New Generation Act of 2024
The following is a national perspective testimony submitted by Bruno Manno, on behalf of the Progressive Policy Institute, to the DC Council on Proposed Bill 25-741 Vocational Education for a New Generation Act of 2024.
Many Americans, including the last wave of Gen Zers now entering high school, want schools to offer more education and training options for young people, like career and technical education, or CTE. They broadly agree that the K–12 goal of “college for all” over the last several decades has not served all students well. It should be replaced with “opportunity pluralism,” or the recognition that a college degree is one of many pathways to post-secondary success.
School-based CTE programs (there are also programs for adults) typically prepare middle and high school students for a range of high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers. These include fields like advanced manufacturing, health sciences, and information technology, which often do not require a two- or four-year college degree. CTE programs award students recognized credentials like industry certifications and licenses. Some programs also provide continuing opportunities for individuals to sequence credentials so that they can pursue associate and bachelor’s degrees if they choose.
Read Manno’s full testimony here.
PPI in the Southern Cone: Harnessing AI and the App Economy in Argentina & the U.S. Trade Relationship with Uruguay
From October 21–25, 2024, a delegation from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) traveled to Argentina and Uruguay to discuss the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the App Economy and its potential to drive economic growth. This trip, led by PPI’s Chief Economist Dr. Michael Mandel and Director for Trade and Global Markets Ed Gresser, featured high-level meetings with government officials, academic leaders, and key players in the tech and business sectors. The delegation emphasized AI’s potential to revolutionize industries ranging from agriculture to finance and underscored the need for supportive policies that foster innovation and job growth.
As Argentina faces continued economic challenges, there is a growing recognition of the App Economy as a source of sustainable employment. This report summarizes key takeaways from PPI’s engagements in Argentina and Uruguay, focusing on themes of innovation, AI integration, and cross-border economic collaboration.
Buenos Aires, Argentina – October 21, 2024
CEDES (Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad)
PPI’s first meeting in Argentina was with the think tank CEDES, where discussions centered around Argentina’s broader political and economic landscape, which gave the delegation a foundational understanding of how Argentina’s economy evolved to the state that it’s in today. and the potential for digital transformation to drive job creation. Key themes included the need for lowering inflation while simultaneously raising prices, and what would constitute a successful economic term for Argentinian President Milei.
Meet & Greet with Professors at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
During this discussion, faculty members emphasized that “this time it’s different”—suggesting that innovation in AI and the App Economy should not be viewed through the same lens as traditional industrial technologies. The group discussed new opportunities from handling more granular, disaggregated data and the unique challenges and potential of such innovations. While development of technologies has often taken center stage, there was acknowledgment that less attention has been paid to how technologies will be adopted in practice, which will be crucial for maximizing the impact of AI and app development on Argentina’s economy.
Buenos Aires, Argentina – October 22, 2024
CIPPEC (Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento)
At CIPPEC, discussions centered on Argentina President Javier Milei’s platform of reducing inflation, dollarizing the economy, and minimizing the privileges of the political elite. While banking and insurance sectors have shown some resilience, the broader economy has not yet rebounded, and uncertainty remains prevalent. Despite this, Milei retains relatively high approval ratings as president, albeit within a climate marked by political violence and threats. The group explored how AI and tech-driven growth could potentially contribute to stabilizing Argentina’s economy amid these challenges.
Argentina Council for International Relations (CARI)
At CARI, the discussion focused on Milei’s success in advocating for fiscal responsibility, marking a shift towards pragmatism in Argentina’s economic approach. There is optimism that Milei’s policies may yield economic growth by the end of 2024, aligning with PPI’s emphasis on long-term digital economy strategies. CARI representatives expressed confidence in Milei’s methods as practical solutions to Argentina’s ongoing economic issues and highlighted the potential for a tech-driven economic boost in the near term.
Argentine Foreign Ministry, US Division (Dirección de Relaciones Económicas con América del Norte – DIANE)
The discussion with the Argentine Foreign Ministry’s U.S. Division focused on strengthening US-Argentina trade relations in both the tech services sector and in basic goods. The group examined how the trade relationship between the two nations could differ following the result of the U.S. presidential election, and how policies like the CHIPS Act impact Argentina.
Argentine Economic Ministry
The PPI team met with the Economic Ministry to discuss Argentina’s trade policy. In recent years, Argentina has faced challenges in liberalizing international trade, but there is a focus on lowering import tariffs and increasing trade volume with the support of the central bank. Although a temporary tax was introduced on imports to fund the pandemic response, it has not yet been fully repealed, highlighting ongoing fiscal considerations. The ministry underscored its intention to continue reducing tax rates to support economic recovery.
PPI Salon Dinner at Cabaña Las Lilas: Fostering Conversations on AI and Economic Growth
On the evening before the event hosted at Etermax in the Villa Urquiza neighborhood of Buenos Aires, PPI hosted a private salon dinner at Cabaña Las Lilas, bringing together a select group of Argentine government officials, tech industry leaders, and software developers. The dinner, which began with a cocktail hour, provided a relaxed setting for off-the-record discussions on the future of the global tech economy and the role of AI in Argentina’s economic landscape.
Participants explored ideas on how government policies could support tech industry growth and addressed challenges unique to the region. This dinner served as a platform for fostering collaboration and building connections among key stakeholders ahead of the formal presentations at Etermax the following day.
Buenos Aires, Argentina – October 23, 2024
“Argentina: AI and the App Economy”
PPI, in partnership with the Argentine Chamber of the Software Industry (CESSI), hosted an event at Etermax headquarters titled “Argentina: AI and the App Economy.” This gathering brought together policymakers, industry leaders, and app developers to discuss the intersection of AI and the App Economy in Argentina. Dr. Michael Mandel presented his latest findings on employment trends in Argentina’s App Economy.
The event featured keynote remarks by Marcos Ayerra, Secretary of SMEs, Entrepreneurs, and Knowledge Economy, who spoke on the government’s efforts to position Argentina as a tech innovation hub. Máximo Cavazzani, CEO of Etermax, delivered a presentation in which he shared insights into AI applications within Argentina’s tech sector. Dr. Mandel then concluded the event by moderating a panel discussion with an app developer and leading AI expert on the role of AI and the app economy in Argentina.
Watch the full event recording.
Montevideo, Uruguay – October 24, 2024
Meeting with Ambassador Pablo Porro and Juan Labraga at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Advisory Trade Policy Unit
This meeting focused on Uruguay’s trade and foreign policy initiatives, including relations with the U.S., Mercosur partners Brazil and Argentina, and China, to give the delegation a sense of Uruguay’s economic position in the world and what their international trade goals are. The Ambassador shared that Uruguay’s primary interest is to have market access for trade negotiations with the US and other large countries. Uruguay does not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US, and Buy-American rules preclude their contribution to recent U.S. industrial strategy programs developed in the CHiPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. They are successful exporters of software to the US, and would like to generate increased investment from multinational tech companies.
Meeting with Uruguay XXI: Investment, Export, and Country Brand Promotion Agency
In Montevideo, PPI met with Uruguay XXI to discuss Uruguay’s investment climate and initiatives to attract tech companies. Discussions touched on what Uruguay has to offer the world in terms of investment potential and what role the US does and could play. They shared that while the US is the fifth-ranking destination for Uruguay’s exports of goods (principally beef and other farm products such as honey), Americans are the top partner for services, which comprise 30% of total exports. More than 80% of Uruguay’s IT services exports go to the US. A recent foreign investment breakthrough was an $850 million investment from Google in building a data center in Uruguay. Relevant to the group was also the opening of a Microsoft AI innovation hub lab. Uruguay XXI stressed that their investment grade is high and their country risk is the lowest in the region as reasons why FDI is continuing to rise.
Montevideo, Uruguay – October 25, 2024
Meeting with CUTI (Chamber of Information and Communication Technology Companies)
This meeting with Uruguay’s largest technology industry group centered on Uruguay’s tech sector, particularly in software development and AI. They are supported by 400 member companies, frequently collaborate with Parliament on laws that might affect the industry and with government agencies to help grow innovation. CUTI shared that Uruguay is doing well in terms of providing IT services, and that they’d like to add more startups and intellectual property to continue growing and adding jobs. A key takeaway was that Uruguay’s international tech sales are mostly selling to tech companies and startups and they’d like to sell more directly to industries.
Meeting with CERES (Center for Studies of Economic and Social Reality)
PPI next met with CERES, a centrist think tank created in 1985 after a military government fell and was replaced by a democratic system. They gave the group an in-depth breakdown of the current government’s makeup and ideological evolution, as well as insight into the Uruguayan elections later that weekend. This involved a second-round presidential vote, and a controversial (and ultimately unsuccessful) pension referendum. They detailed what they’d be looking for in terms of relations with Uruguay from a Harris administration, and expressed concerns about the effect on commodity prices for Uruguay if the role of the US in international conflicts were to be destabilized.
Meeting with CED (Center for Economic Development)
To cap off the trip, PPI met with CED, the Center for Economic Development. A center-right think[-tank, they continued to reiterate the economic and political themes that had been expressed throughout the visit, and gave further insight into the recent slowdown in Uruguayan economic growth. CED highlighted political stability and strong institutions as Uruguay’s strong points, while outlining their vision for a more sustainable economic growth plan in the near future. They emphasized that their objective in the next year is to consolidate the high levels of employment and aim for the Central Bank’s 3% inflation rate target in order to foster this economic growth.
Conclusion: Toward a Stronger Regional App Economy
PPI’s delegation trip underscored the opportunities for Argentina and Uruguay to emerge as leaders in the AI-driven App Economy. By fostering supportive policies, investing in talent development, and encouraging cross-border collaborations, both countries stand to benefit from the global tech boom. This visit provided valuable insights and strengthened PPI’s ties with policymakers, academic leaders, and industry experts committed to advancing digital innovation throughout Latin America.