# Brink Lindsey

> Brink Lindsey is a writer and policy thinker who spent decades inside Washington's free-market establishment - vice president for research at the Cato Institute, a leading free-trade voice - before publicly reinventing himself as a 'recovering libertarian.' Now senior vice president at the Niskanen Center, he argues that capable government and robust social insurance are not enemies of markets but their necessary complement. His writing, including The Captured Economy (with Steven Teles) and The Permanent Problem, wrestles with a single paradox: rich countries have never had more material plenty, and people have never felt less satisfied. He explores it weekly from a base in northeastern Thailand on his Substack, The Permanent Problem.

- **Role:** Senior Vice President at the Niskanen Center
- **Organizations:** Niskanen Center, Cato Institute (former), Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (former), Reason magazine (contributing editor, former)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** A.B., Princeton University, J.D., Harvard Law School
- **Known for:** Authored Princeton University Press's first-ever original ebook (Human Capitalism, 2012), Co-authored The Captured Economy with Steven M. Teles, a widely cited account of rent-seeking and inequality, Built Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies into a leading free-trade institution

## Career timeline

- **1998-2004** — Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, building it into a leading voice for free trade
- **2004-2010** — Vice president for research and other senior roles at the Cato Institute; senior editor of Regulation magazine
- **2007** — Published The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture
- **2010-2012** — Senior scholar / fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
- **2012** — Authored Human Capitalism, the first original ebook published by Princeton University Press
- **2017** — Joined the Niskanen Center as Vice President and Director of the Open Society Project
- **2017** — Published The Captured Economy with Steven M. Teles (Oxford University Press)
- **2026** — Published The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing

## Achievements

- Authored Princeton University Press's first-ever original ebook (Human Capitalism, 2012)
- Co-authored The Captured Economy with Steven M. Teles, a widely cited account of rent-seeking and inequality
- Built Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies into a leading free-trade institution
- Senior Vice President helping shape the Niskanen Center's transpartisan policy vision
- Author of multiple books spanning trade law, prosperity, inequality, and political economy

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Published The Permanent Problem: The Uncertain Transition from Mass Plenty to Mass Flourishing
- **2025-04** — Engaged extensively with the abundance agenda, including responses to Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance, on his Substack
- **2024-07** — Hosted Eli Dourado of the Abundance Institute on The Permanent Problem podcast to discuss abundance and collapse

## Links

- Website: https://brinklindsey.substack.com/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/brinklindsey

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/brink-lindsey
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-02