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Mont Pélerin Society
2003
President
of the Czech Republic -
Vaclav Klaus
Nobel Laureate James Buchanan
Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith
Nobel laureate Milton Friedman
J. R. Clark presented " Freedom, Entreprenueurship
& Economic Progress" at the 2003 Mont Pélerin
Society Conference
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The Mont Pélerin Society convened approximately 200 of
the world’s top classical liberal scholars in Chattanooga, to
analyze the prospects for “Freedom, Entrepreneurship, and
Prosperity” in the 21st Century. The conference theme was based
upon the idea that entrepreneurship has been the driving force
behind the vast prosperity, which free economies have enjoyed in
the 20th Century, and that both political and economic freedom
provide the foundation for successful entrepreneurship. Over the
four days of the conference, 22 academic papers, relating to the
subject, were presented by the cadre of world class authors.
Featured speakers included three Noble Laureates – James
Buchanan, Vernon Smith, and Milton Friedman – as well as the
President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus. Organized by The
Probasco Chair and the Smith Center for Private Enterprise
Studies, the conference attracted distinguished scholars from 24
nations including delegations from Argentina, the United
Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Columbia, Chile, the Czech
Republic, and Belgium. The Russian delegation included Andrei
Illarionov and Peter Ivanovic, President Vladimir Putin’s
economic advisors, and the Mexican delegation included Roberto
Salinas-León of TV Azteca. Notable among the American
participants were
Attorney General Edwin Meese, Social Security Trust Fund Trustee
Dr. Thomas Saving, Judge Douglas Ginsburg, and UCLA economist
Harold Demsetz. Concurrent with The Mont Pélerin Society
conference, were meetings by the Liberty Fund, Inc., the Atlas
Economic Research Foundation, The Heritage Foundation, and the
Earhart Foundation.
Highlights:
The opening address was given by Vaclav
Klaus. In his address entitled “Reflections on the Current
Situation in Europe,” Klaus discussed the performance of several
former communist countries since they entered the
post-transformation phase, joined the European Union, and signed
the European Union Accession Treaty. He emphasized the major
historical events affecting these economies of Eastern Europe
and the promises they held for transformation to a new economic
era. He also pointed out that the recent visible slowdown of the
entire European economy was the result of an expansion of
political control, a visible increase in rent-seeking, and the
introduction of the single European currency.
James Buchanan spoke Friday morning on
“Classical Liberalism as an Organizing Ideal,” tracing out the
values and suppositions that seem to be so strongly held by
classical liberals but eschewed by their lesser committed
intellectual counter parts. Beginning with his own revelation in
Frank Knight’s price theory course at the University of Chicago,
Buchanan pointed out that most classical liberals, but by no
means all, reject the inference that salvation lies with
science, that our advocacy roles are essentially redundant. He
suggested that the shared enthusiasm for classical liberalism is
located in understanding the philosophical implications of the
science of economics and their correspondence with the values
held by classical liberals. He suggested that “human animals are
uniquely capable of organizing themselves within social
structures that make liberty, peace, and prosperity
simultaneously achievable.”
Vernon Smith gave the Friday luncheon address
on “Freedom, Economic Theory and Experiment.” He
began by discussing his research on the generic function of
consumer-producer markets. In established commodity markets,
producers incur recurrent, relatively predictable costs, and
consumers experience corresponding recurrent flows of value
from consumption. In laboratory experiments these recurrent
flow markets are incredibly efficient. Stock markets, on the
other hand, are inherently far more uncertain than markets for
commodities and services because stock markets must anticipate
innovations—the new commodities and services of the future.
At the time of new innovations, the extent of their subsequent
economic success is inherently unpredictable. In laboratory
stock markets, even where fundamental value is well defined
and known, inexperienced subjects produce great price bubbles
and crashes. They reach rational expectations equilibrium only
through experience. Using reference to the ancient Inuit
“principle of the first harpoon,” Smith traced out
the critical role of property rights in both personal exchange
and it’s impersonal counterpart of complex international
markets and concluded with illustrations of the highly positive
relationship between freedom and prosperity.
On Sunday, Milton Friedman, via satellite,
discussed the difference between the rhetoric and reality of
freedom and socialism in the 56 years since the founding of
The Mont Pélerin Society. Implying a dual swinging
social pendulum between the two, he pointed out that in the
founding years of The Mont Pélerin Society the reality was that
most economies were free, but the rhetoric was primarily socialist
in nature. Academics and governments alike concentrated on attacking
the free market for its inequalities and imperfections, suggesting
that more equality and superior outcomes could be produced by
greater socialism. After 56 years of tinkering, the vast majority
of both academics and politicians today speak the rhetoric
of the free market, but the socialist paradigm is far more the
practice in the world’s economies. Friedman summarized
by remarking that “There is no question in my mind that
we are less free today than we were 50 years ago..I predict
that in the next 50 years the importance of government will
decline.”
J. R. Clark, Probasco Chair, and Dwight Lee,
from the University of Georgia, presented "Freedom, Entrepreneurship
& Economic Progress" at the 2003 Mont Pélerin
Society conference.
Financial Support for the conference was
provided by The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the
Lyndhurst Foundation, the Benwood Foundation, the Foundation for
the American West, SunTrust Banks, Inc., Chattem, Inc., Astec
Industries, Inc., the Aequus Institute, Pierre F. & Enid
Goodrich Foundation, the Roe Foundation, Georgina and Edmund
Teyrovsky, Owen and Erma Smith, Menlo Smith, Sir John M.
Templeton, Brice Holland, Harry Fields, and numerous other
individuals. |
