As an extension of its educational mission, Hillsdale College’s Center for the Study of Monetary Systems and Free Enterprise is making available visiting speakers, at no cost, to interested colleges and universities. Listed below are some of our currently available speakers and suggested topics.

To schedule an event, please notify the Director of the Center for the Study of Monetary Systems and Free Enterprise, Anita Folsom, and list three choices for speakers. Contact Anita at 517-607-2354 or by email.

SPEAKERS

Jim F. Couch has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Mississippi and currently teaches at the University of North Alabama. He is the co-author, with Dr. William F. Shugart, of The Political Economy of the New Deal (1998) and has published articles in Public Choice, Contemporary Economic Policy, Public Finance Review, The Independent Review and Economics and Politics. Dr. Couch currently serves as the editor of the Journal of Business, Industry and Economics.

Suggested topics:

• The Political Economy of the New Deal
• Improving Education through School Choice
• The Ways of the King: What Government Does Well and What It Doesn’t
  

Burton Folsom is Professor of History and Management at Hillsdale College. He has degrees from Indiana University and the University of Nebraska, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of The Myth of the Robber Barons, currently in its fourth edition, and Empire Builders, as well as several other books and dozens of articles. He is a quarterly columnist for The Freeman, a publication of The Foundation for Economic Education.

Suggested topics:

• How the United States Became a Great Economic Power
• The Myths of the Great Depression
• Why the New Deal Failed
• How Capitalism Saved America
• Will the National Debt Strangle the United States?
• America’s First Two Billionaires and How They Saved their Country
  

Samuel Gregg is Director of Research at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. He has an M.A. from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. His books include Morality, Law, and Public Policy; Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded; and On Ordered Liberty. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Suggested topics:

• Corruption in Developing Economies: Sources and Solutions
• Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critique
• Financial Ethics: The On-Going Challenge
  

P. J. Hill is Professor of Economics at Wheaton College in Illinois and a Senior Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. He has a degree from Montana State and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is the co-author of several books, including The Birth of a Transfer Society and The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (both with Terry L. Anderson). He has also authored numerous articles on the theory of property rights and institutional change.

Suggested topics:

• Faith and the Economy: Friends, Enemies, or Uneasy Partners?
• The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier
• Market Conditions in the Late 19th Century America
  

Jay Richards is a Research Fellow and Director of Media at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. He has a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was formerly a Teaching Fellow. His most recent books are The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Immutability and Simplicity; and, with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery.

Suggested topics:

• Morality of the Free Market
• Christianity and Capitalism
• Myths about the Free Market
• Good Stewardship and Environmental Debates
  

Larry Schweikart is a former rock drummer and earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has taught at the University of Dayton for 25 years, and his recent best-sellers include A Patriot’s History of the United States and America’s Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror. The author of dozens of articles on American entrepreneurs, in 1999 he published a history of American business, The Entrepreneurial Adventure.

Suggested topics:

• Why We Need A Patriot’s History of the United States
• America’s Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Our Enemies Underestimate Us
• America’s WWII Business Victory
• The Pony Express as a Study of Corporate Layoffs
• The Managerial Revolution: Why White-Collar Layoffs Aren’t Understood Today
  

Gary Wolfram is Professor of Political Economy at Hillsdale College. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and has taught at Mount Holyoke College, the University of Michigan, and Washington State University. His publications include Towards a Free Society: An Introduction to Markets and the Political System and several works on Michigan’s tax structure and other public policy issues.

Suggested topics:

• Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
• Failures of Central Planning
• The Political Economy of K-12 Education
• The Efficiency of Market Economies
• The Relationship Between Economic and Political Liberty
• The Morality of the Market System