Brookings Today, 10/13/14

A roundup of some of the content published today by Brookings.

• Billionaires in nondemocratic regimes. Darrell West writes that “The line between billionaire policy advocacy and political involvement can be very treacherous in nondemocratic systems.”
• Five questions about Hong Kong’s protests. Richard Bush’s recent commentaries and insights answer five key questions about the continuing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. 
• Is unwed childbearing the new norm? Isabel Sawhill and Joanna Venator introduce the first in a series of blog posts on Sawhill’s new book, Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage.
• Don’t play games with New START. Steven Pifer argues that, in response to some who have suggested suspending reductions under the treaty to penalize Russia for its aggression in Ukraine, “tampering with New START is not in the United States’ interest.” It would, he said, “cause the treaty to unravel.”
• Why the AIG trial doesn’t matter. Philip Wallach says that whether or not former AIG executive Hank Greenberg wins his suit against the U.S. government on the charge of wrongfully devaluing shareholders’ equity in the AIG bailout, the result “won’t matter very much in the big scheme of things.”
• Stop sequestering the defense budget. Arguing that sequestration spending levels are not enough for current and future needs, Ron Haskins and Michael O’Hanlon argue that 2017 is too long to wait for defense spending budget relief.