Study
Adam Smith’s guide to life, loveliness, and the modern economy
Introduction: Going strong at 300 Ryan Young This essay collection celebrates Adam Smith’s 300th birthday. He is best known for being the first modern economist,…
News Release
CEI Celebrates Fred L. Smith, Jr.’s 80th Birthday with Anthology of His Writing
Fred L. Smith, Jr. celebrated his 80th birthday just before the New Year, and his friends and colleagues at the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Study
Labor of Love: A Fred Smith Story
View Full Book as PDF Edited by Kent Lassman, Amanda France, and Ivan Osorio INTRODUCTION View Introduction as PDF Everyone…
Occupational Health & Safety
DOT Forms In-Flight Sexual Misconduct Task Force
Occupational Health & Safety cited CEI’s Adjunct Fellow Frances Smith’s new position as ACPAC consumer representative. The first meeting of DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection…
Blog
How to Articulate a Free-Market Vision for the Future
The Competitive Enterprise Institute views most market failure rationales for government intervention as wrong, overstated, or unproven (or all of the above). The Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Canada Live News
Ottawa Risks An Endless Loop Of Canadian Farmer Payouts From Trade Deals
Canada Live News cited CEI on new NAFTA agreement. “Trade deals are better than no trade deals, generally speaking. But bad trade deals…
Reflections On The Evolution Of Trade Policy
Reflections On The Evolution Of Trade Policy
Forbes has published an article by Fred Smith detailing the effects of renegotiation and its effects on the North American economy as well as the…
Forbes
Does a Market Economy Encourage Altruism?
Are markets inherently altruistic? I thought of that question after attending a recent conference, co-sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)…
Forbes
Reflections on the Evolution of Trade Policy
The Trump administration’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could launch a trade war with our major trading partners,…
The Wall Street Journal
Oil and Spectrum Rights Models Offer a Clue
Thomas W. Hazlett’s “How Politics Stalls Wireless Innovation” (op-ed, Oct. 2) outlines the irrationality of the current political mismanagement of the electromagnetic spectrum and…
Main Street Radio Network
AUDIO: Fred Smith Discusses Capitalism on the Alan Nathan
Founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and President of the Center for Advancing Capitalism, Fred L. Smith, Jr., discusses capitalism on the Alan Nathan Show…
The Regulatory Review
Constructively Improving Railroad Regulations
Edward R. Hamberger, President and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, mentions a piece by Fred Smith and Marc Scribner regarding regulations of the…
News Release
CEI Continues to Support President Trump’s Paris Climate Accord Decision
Forbes
International Freedom Fighters Organize in Miami
Fans of free markets and limited government have a new place to seek allies. Recently Conservatives International, a new global advocacy organization, was launched…
Forbes
Happy Birthday, Adam Smith!
June 16, 1723, is the birth date of Adam Smith, a Scottish intellectual greatly admired for clarifying the virtuous, self-organizing nature of free markets. Smith…
Blog
Remembering Aaron Wildavsky
Aaron Wildavsky, born on this day in 1930, died tragically and all too young in 1993, but left behind an incredible legacy in the public policy…
The Conservative Online
Market Institutions Never Evolved For The Environment; And That’s Why It Can’t Be Properly Protected
As Joseph Schumpeter noted, free markets had a good first century (the 1750s to 1850s). A market economy produced massive improvements in the quality of…
Blog
Response to Mercatus Center’s Dan Griswold on Trade Policy
Fred Smith and Marc Scribner respond to the Mercatus Center's Dan Griswold on the free market approach to trade policy.
Blog
Companies Make a Play for Hearts and Minds with Super Bowl Ads
Corporations are in trouble – people see more bad than good in corporate America, even though they may like and enjoy their products.
Fox Business
A Trade Policy to Boost American Competitiveness
President Donald Trump’s early actions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, North American Free Trade Agreement, and the nomination of avowed protectionists to key roles have shaken…
Forbes
Trump Must Take On The Cronyism Challenge
For President-elect Donald Trump to deliver on his “make American great again,” promise, economic growth must again exceed today’s anemic rate. Reforming tax policy, reducing…
Blog
Some Advice for Trump Appointees
Your role in the new administration is to propose ways of restoring limited government – by privatization, deregulation, extending property rights, and taking on the…
The Claremont Review of Books
Bullying Culture
Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel has written an insightful, important book on the Left’s efforts to drive market-friendly voices from the public square. A…
The Claremont Review of Books
The Progressive Era’s Derailment of Classical Liberal Evolution
It is true that where a considerable part of the costs incurred are external costs from the point of view of the acting individuals…
Forbes
Lessons From A Decade Of “Conscious Capitalism”
What can 220 CEOs learn at a “Conscious Capitalism” conference? Perhaps valuable insights into the purpose and value of their businesses. Perhaps also, ways to…
Blog
Free Market Opportunities for the Trump Administration
This election has given us one more demonstration that knowledge is dispersed and “trusting the experts” to know the future is foolish. The unexpected success…
Washington Post
Was 2016 a missed opportunity for Libertarians?
The Washington Post discusses why the Liberterian Party struggled to reach people with Fred Smith. Fred Smith, the founder of the libertarian Competitive…
Forbes
Is Capitalism Worth Defending?
In an election season poised to set new records for voter fatigue, we’ve seen a lot of negativity about major American institutions, including…
Daily Caller
Another Shot At Free Market Advocacy
Study
The Morality and Virtues of Capitalism and the Firm
View Full Document as PDF The case for the morality of capitalism lies in its voluntary nature and its synthesis of self-interest…
Forbes
Classical Liberalism Alive And Well In Miami
It’s difficult to wage a war without allies, and the War of Ideas is no different. Yet, capitalist defenders—free market intellectuals and wealth-creating business leaders—rarely…
Forbes
Brexit Planners Should Look To The U.S. For Inspiration
In June, British voters voted to leave the European Union, whose bureaucracy had imposed alien laws and regulations on them for decades. The EU system…
Forbes
Capitalism and the Candidates
As a longtime advocate for capitalism, I’ve been considering the prospects for free market ideas in a White House presided over by either of the…
Blog
Happy Birthday to Economist Bruce Yandle
Bruce Yandle – a great economic scholar at Clemson University for many years and recipient of the 2016 Julian Simon Award – reaches his 83rd…
Reason
“The Alternative To Innovation Is Not Stability. It’s Stagnation.”
Reason discusses capitalism and innovation with CEI's found Fred Smith. "The alternative to innovation is not stability," says Fred L. Smith, who founded…
Forbes
New Hostility To High Finance Has Ancient Roots
Recently, the Republicans assembled in Cleveland approved a platform that includes some praiseworthy planks on government reform, but one provision stood out as a jarring…
Forbes
Manage Water Like Oil To Increase Supply
Some of the natural resources we use every day are traded freely in the market economy, while others are heavily regulated and controlled by government…
Blog
Religious and Economic Liberty Are Intertwined
The massacre in Orlando was a tragic reminder that we’re at war—against hate, against extremism, and against intolerance. Although there are many contributing factors…
Wall Street Journal
Amnesia? We Remember the Lack of a Cushion
As longtime critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who warned early on that they could destabilize the financial system, we were shocked by Douglas…
Study
Toward a Thinker/Doer Alliance: A Grand Strategy for Liberty Advocates
By Fred L. Smith, Jr. Director, Center for Advancing Capitalism Speech delivered at Hillsdale College Hillsdale, Michigan…
Forbes
What CEOs Should Be Saying About Inequality
Despite living at a time of unprecedented decreases in poverty around the world, we’re witnessing a seemingly unprecedented increase in worry about income…
Forbes
When Anything Could Be The ‘Next Tobacco’
When political operators win big with a clever legal strategy, you can be sure it’ll be used again. One strategy that paid off handsomely for…
Blog
Trade Is Good, Using Trade to Weaken Foreign Investment Is Not
Free traders have long promoted an expansion of the rights of the citizens of one nation to buy and sell to one another. The old…
Forbes
Three Decades On, The Fight For Economic Freedom Continues
Americans want honorable, thoughtful government but are no longer sure that result is possible. Government has now grown so gigantic, arrogant, powerful, and pervasive that…
Forbes
Super Bowl Ads Need To Reach Both Citizens And Consumers
As an observer of corporate advertising, I found the quality and style of the Super Bowl 50 ads disappointing. Once again, there were plenty of…
Forbes
The Chipotle Effect: When Companies Believe Their Own Hype
Earlier this week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally closed the books on the investigation of the E. coli outbreaks at multiple…
The Washington Examiner
What the Near-Death of the Railroad Industry Can Teach American Business Leaders
Business executives deal with the spiraling cost of complying with government regulation every day. This burden has become so large and pervasive that many have…
Forbes
How Cars Saved The Montgomery Bus Boycott
December 5, 1955, was a key date in the struggle to eliminate racial segregation laws in the United States. On that date, the African American…
Forbes
Congress Is A Terrible Business Partner
We are beginning to see the unraveling of the Faustian bargain that private health insurance companies made with the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress…
Blog
Thanksgiving: Massachusetts Discovers Property Rights
Thanksgiving is a day layered in tradition and myth. The standard story makes much of the creative efforts of our ancestors, the assistance provided by…
Forbes
Virtuous Capitalism In Theory And Practice
Capitalism has a bad reputation. Many people see it as corrupt, uncaring, and in bed with politicians. And popular wisdom isn’t always wrong. For example,…
Study
Reviving Capitalism
The near-death and rebirth of American railroads is a case study in business leaders fending off regulation.
Forbes
The Real Value Of ‘Networking’ In The Business World
Fred Smith discusses "The Real Value of Networking" in Forbes Beating up on capitalism – and business leaders generally – is all the…
Business Ethics Highlights
CEI: There’s Less Corruption In Business Than You Think
The Business Ethics Highlights features CEI's article on rent-seeking. If the data show rent-seeking behavior by firms to be so effective, why don’t…
Study
Virtuous Capitalism
Is there less corruption in business than we think?…
Forbes
An Honest Economist In A PC World
Blog
“Losing Our Minds” over Green Energy
Eco-theocracy has swept America and Europe, resulting in governments devoting vast sums to build their Green Temples where “renewable energy” and “recycled materials” can be…
The Washington Post
Deregulation and Privatization Are the Ways Forward
In his Oct. 8 op-ed column, “A global economy in peril,” Lawrence Summers argued that current bond prices are a sign that government debt…
Blog
Reasons for Global Warming Skepticism
Democrats have developed a cottage industry in ridiculing and condemning Republicans as Luddites. How can any “reasonable” person deny that increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the…
Forbes
The Next Generation Of Capitalists
Ten years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has made a tremendous comeback. That’s due not just to the hard work of natives…
Cap X
CapX Reviews: By the People
Charles Murray, in his new book, By the People: Rebuilding Liberty without Permission, argues that America’s constitutional checks on the growth of spending, taxation, and…
Forbes
A New History Of American Business
Government intervention in the economy—via spending, regulation, and taxation—has expanded steadily over the last century and is now at an all-time high. As economist Joseph…
Forbes
Students Dive Into The Political Shark Tank
Recently I was a presenter and participant in a workshop organized by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). The event, “Communicating Liberty: Shark Tank,”…
Forbes
Experimenting In The Laboratory Of Economics
Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon Smith was in Australia last week to lecture at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney. In addition to his…
Investor.com
Pope Worships The Creator, His Advisor Worships The Creation
The Investors.com cites CEI`s Fred Smith on the Pope`s encyclical on global warming: The pope indicates that his primary trouble with global warming…
Forbes
The Pope, Poverty And Global Warming
The world waits in anticipation as Pope Francis and his advisers finalize an official Vatican statement on climate change and the environment – expected out…
Blog
Protecting the Earth Isn’t Just Government Work
This April will mark the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. Since 1970, countless people around the world have used the day to celebrate the beauty…
Comment
Congressional Testimony – Fred Smith on the Private Role of “Public Goods”
Read the full testimony here Good afternoon Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on…
Forbes
Why Human Achievement Is Worth Celebrating
This Saturday marks the seventh annual observance of “Human Achievement Hour,” a celebration of technology and prosperity hosted by my organization, the Competitive Enterprise…
Forbes
Enhancing The Private Role For ‘Public Goods’
John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that in America our gardens are beautiful, while our public parks are in a state of disaster. While Galbraith saw…
Blog
Yes, and Water Can Run Uphill!
A recent Washington Post story by Joby Warrick says much about the credulity of the media. The story extols the great gains in wind…
Human Events
Why Capitalist Virtue Beats Cronyist Sin
Blog
There Are No “Neutral Taxes” in Politics
Those favoring larger government are finding it harder to finance them by raising taxes. Proponents have sought to reduce opposition by claiming that they’re not…
Forbes
A Valentine For Capitalism
The notes and cards we exchange on Valentine’s Day cover a wide range of emotions—from intimate love letters for that special someone to the simple…
Blog
The Empire Strikes Back!
Right-of-center groups have for some time become a bit complacent. Sure the left had the universities, the media, and pop culture—but we had the think…
Blog
Premature Capitulation?
Over the decades I’ve spent in this Heart of Darkness (a.k.a., the bowels of American politics), I’ve learned two lessons that have encouraged the steady…
Investor's Business Daily
Save Capitalism With Those Ads On Super Bowl
With another Super Bowl comes another venerable tradition — the contest to produce the best ads. It's the biggest event of the advertising year —…
Forbes
From Mutual Aid To Modern Insurance: How Capitalism Eased The Pain Of Death
We all die. And we all need to make provisions for that eventuality—especially if we have dependents or goals extending into the future. In traditional…
Forbes
Two Cheers For Cuba Libre
President Obama’s recent decision to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba was welcomed by many free marketers, but met with skepticism by those who favor political…
Forbes
A Better Way To Help Our Fellow Man
As we enter the Christmas season, the question of our responsibility to our fellow man (and woman) arises. When we see people in need, how…
Blog
Political vs. Market Regulation: Uber Edition
Earlier this week The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell suggested that new entrants in the transportation market, like Uber, should face greater government regulation—despite having fueled much of…
Blog
The Future and the Regulated
Lawrence Summers, the enfant terrible of the economics profession, has written a thoughtful column on “Our Loss of Faith in the Future,” noting that…
Newsmax
Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Smith: Entertainment Industry Vilifies Business
Newsmax discusses Fred Smith's latest Forbes column: "The entertainment…
Forbes
Confessions Of A Capitalist
The recent remake of The Manchurian Candidate is a curious thing. While it repeats most of the plot of the 1962 original, the North Korean…
Forbes
A Truly Frightening Halloween in our Future?
This article was originally published at Forbes on October 31, 2014 For many of us, Halloween brings back many fond memories. We recall the…
Forbes
The Least Important Election of Your Lifetime
The November midterm elections are around the corner and as usual, the airwaves are filled with frenzied appeals to vote for one candidate or another…
Products
What Is Plouffe’s Battle Plan?
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s decision to hire former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe raises some interesting questions. Uber, a social network offering consumers an attractive…
Blog
How Will the Future View the “Temples” of Eco-Theocrats?
While vacationing in Germany recently, I noted many beautiful and now largely untenanted churches. Elegant, majestic against the sky, they are potent symbols of a…
Forbes
Defending the Virtue of the Business World at Home and Abroad
A new CNBC/Burson-Marsteller poll on attitudes toward business in both developed and emerging economies reveals some troubling findings. While business leaders in the U.S.
Cato Journal: Fall 2014 Vol. 34 No. 3
Cato Journal: “Unstoppable” Book Review
This article was originally published in the Fall 2014 Edition of the Cato Institute Journal. Read the Full Review…
Study
Learning from the Past, Freeing up the Future: The Political Economy of Regulatory Change
Blog
The Not-So-Free Market at Work
In the mail, I recently received a brochure from a firm called Solar Solution LLC, claiming to be the District of Columbia’s #1 solar installer. Included…
Business Insider Australia
How A ‘Bunch Of Commies’ Are Forcing The Fortune 500 To Stop Destroying Rain Forests, Overfishing, And Burning Fossil Fuels
Even Greenpeace’s detractors have taken note of the organisation’s newfound potency. Fred Smith, former president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and founder of the…
Financial Times
Capitalists ought not to be cowed by their critics
Sir, Lynn Forester de Rothschild’s recent column (“Capitalism thrives by looking past the bottom line,” May 21) provides new evidence of the prescience of legendary…
Blog
The “Cooperative” Enterprise Institute?
In a sense, companies compete with each other to be the better cooperator.
Forbes
Ronald Coase Was The Greatest Of The Many Great University Of Chicago Economists
Ronald Coase (1910-2013), the greatest of the Chicago School economists in my view, died this week. Yet, his work lives on. If it gains the…
Forbes
We’re In A Cultural War Between The Forces Of Economic Dynamism And Stasis
In a recent column, I noted that our tribal ancestors viewed entrepreneurs with suspicion. In their view, entrepreneurs were too willing to violate…
Forbes
Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge Was The Ultimate Job Creator
There is probably no figure more emblematic of the greedy, penny-pinching capitalist than Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Dickens is often seen…
Forbes
The Sad Decline of the Word Capitalism
Not everyone is giving up. One example is Fred L. Smith, chairman and founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who has launched the…
Forbes
When Steven Pearlstein Bashes Capitalism, Is It Really Capitalism?
Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein recently touched on several important tensions that arise in our conceptions of capitalism—tensions that lie at the core of America’s…