CEI to Recognize Work on Abundance at Elvis-themed Julian L. Simon Memorial Dinner in September 2023

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The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce speakers and award winners for the annual Julian L. Simon Memorial Award Dinner on Thursday, September 28, in Washington, D.C.  

Best-selling author, decision-making expert, and former professional poker champion Annie Duke will join CEI President Kent Lassman in an on-stage conversation about the lessons in her latest book Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away as applied to public policy. What are the hurdles to establishing “kill criteria” and sunset provisions to government programs?

David M. Simon, son of Julian L. Simon, will present his father’s namesake award to scholars Marian L. Tupy and Gale L. Pooley, authors of The Simon Abundance Index andthe book Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet. The award honors Julian Simon’s vision of mankind as the ultimate resource by recognizing current, exceptional work advancing that vision.

In groundbreaking research, Tupy and Pooley analyze the prices of hundreds of commodities, goods, and services spanning two centuries and find that resources became more abundant as the population grew.

“Their work advances our understanding – and that of economic science – of how prices transform scarcity to abundance,” said Lassman. “Ingenuity is the secret weapon for superabundance. Like Julian Simon before them, Tupy and Pooley light the way forward with a thunderbolt of insight to inform how we understand and implement solutions to problems like famine, overpopulation, poverty, and disease.”

The CEI event on Sept. 28 will be held at the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Reason Magazine editor-at-large Nick Gillespie will emcee the event. This year’s celebratory theme for the evening will be “Elvis: All Shook Up.”

Event information:

Julian L. Simon Memorial Award Dinner

Thursday 9/28/23, 6:00 – 11:00 pm ET

National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum