Remembering Our Friend Ted

Barry Lynn, executive director of Open Markets Institute, remembers Ted Halstead, founder of New America

WASHINGTON — Three years ago, Open Markets Institute made headlines when our team of seven people departed New America, a think tank here in Washington. What got lost in that narrative is that, for many years, New America had provided the very best example of how a think tank can foster radically new ideas that improve the lives of individuals and the well-being of the republic.

The person who made that possible was our friend Ted Halstead, who founded New America in 1999. For almost a decade, Ted devoted himself to curating the most important intellectual conversation in America during those years, one that left a profound and lasting impact on our nation and the world. Last week, we learned Ted died at age 52. We at Open Markets Institute send our deepest sympathies to Ted’s family and all his thousands of other friends.

You can read about Ted’s many achievements in The Washington Post, but I want to add two things. The first is Ted’s commitment to raising up and supporting the work of misfits and heretics, and to bringing new thinking fully and safely into the mainstream of debate. Ted embraced many outsiders, including me. He provided us not only with a platform on which to work, but with constant encouragement and coaching in how to think, write, and speak in ways designed to provoke and educate the public. No one had a better eye for the autodidact who would abide a necktie.

Second is Ted’s overarching commitment to honest and sometimes rough debate and to pathbreaking journalism. This was true even when such work threatened New America itself. I saw this up close in 2006, after I published an article in Harper’s called “Breaking the Chain: The Antitrust Case Against Walmart.” At the time, one of New America’s most important programs was working with Walmart on a big health care project, and more than one person demanded that Ted kick me out. Ted’s response? He framed the cover of Harper’s and hung it where everyone would see it.

I had the privilege of working at New America for more than 15 years. Without the intellectual freedom and culture of open debate of New America, Open Markets itself would not exist. Nor would all the work that Open Markets has done to detail the threat posed by today’s monopolies and to explain how we can restore our democracy.

It was in Ted’s Washington salon that Marcellus Andrews, Phil Longman, and I first began to discuss the problem and nature of monopoly in the 21st century. It was in Ted’s salon where we hired Lina Khan, Leah Douglas, and Brian Feldman. It was in Ted’s salon where we hosted our first fellow, Zephyr Teachout.

It was in Ted’s Washington salon that all of us were able to refine our anti-monopoly thinking in debate with a remarkably wide array of thinkers, including Michael Lind, Sherle Schwenninger, Steve Clemons, Ray Boshara, Shannon Brownlee, Frank Foer, Chris Leonard, Jed Purdy, Tim Wu, Nick Thompson, Sascha Meinreith, Lisa Margonelli, Chris Hayes, and Reijan Salam, and many other great friends and friendly foes.

After leaving New America under the guidance of Steve Coll, Ted returned to his original mission, saving the world from the most damaging effects of climate change. In Ted’s honor, we at Open Markets will be redoubling our own efforts over the coming year to show how, when monopolists control our politics and technologies, the result is devastation for the planet and all creatures on it.

And we will do so with real hope. Because, thanks to Ted, we at Open Markets learned that the way to achieve the impossible is to come up with a better argument. And rather than wait for some “expert” to “discover” your work, to publish it and promote it your own damn self.