CEI To Honor Free Market Economist Julian Simon

Washington, DC, May 22, 2001—The late free market economist Julian L. Simon will be honored at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Seventh Annual Warren T. Brookes Dinner Thursday, May 24 with the presentation of the inaugural Julian L. Simon Memorial Award. 

“By commemorating the life of Julian Simon, we hope to foster the ideals represented in his work,” said Fred L. Smith, CEI’s president and founder.  “These ideals are based on an unwavering, and well-founded, optimism in the future of mankind.  Julian’s research was groundbreaking in that it undermined the ‘doomsayers,’ by recognizing that human beings are not a liability to the earth, but an asset, and that natural resources derive their value from the intellect of man, and are therefore always renewable.”

The recipient of the inaugural Julian L. Simon Memorial Award is Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a group dedicated to advancing the vision of limited government and lower taxes.  Moore was a research fellow for Dr. Simon from 1982-1985 and worked together with him on several projects afterwards, including the book It’s Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Past 100 Years.

“Julian Simon was truly the great doom-slayer of the last half century.  All his theories and his ideas about the world we live in have been validated since he first introduced them.  I was lucky to have him as a mentor and teacher and am extremely honored to receive this award in his name,” said Moore.

During his illustrious career, Dr. Simon’s research was highlighted by a bet he made with Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich.  Wanting to prove his theory that natural resources are not finite in a true sense, Julian challenged Ehrlich in 1980 to choose five commodities that he believed would become more scarce, and therefore more expensive, over a decade.  Ten years later, the price of each metal had fallen.  In commemoration of the bet, the Julian L. Simon Award includes a sculpture of oak leaves, with the veins representing the five metals chosen by Ehrlich: chromium, copper, nickel, tin, and tungsten.

At the dinner named in honor of the late journalist Warren T. Brookes, CEI Distinguished Fellow Jack Kemp and Fred L. Smith will present the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award to Mr. Moore.  The Honorable Spencer Abraham is the evening’s keynote speaker.