Brink Lindsey is an American political writer, and Vice President and Director of the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center. Previously he was the Cato Institute's vice president for research. From 1998 to 2004, he was director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, focusing on free trade, and also editor of Cato Unbound, a monthly web magazine. He was a senior fellow with the Kauffman Foundation from 2010 to 2012. An attorney with a background in international trade regulation, Lindsey was formerly director of regulatory studies at Cato and senior editor of Regulation magazine. He is a contributing editor at Reason magazine and a frequent discussion guest on BloggingHeads.tv and often moderates Cato panel discussions. A registered Republican and self-proclaimed libertarian, he endorsed Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. He has written on a broad range of topics including trade, economic growth, cultural division, economic inequality, the nature of IQ scores, and helicopter parents.