Economists and co-authors Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell have the research, and equally importantly, firsthand global experience to affirm that socialism fails to deliver on any of the utopian promises it makes. The two toured the unfree world and found that bad beer is only the beginning of the problems that residents of socialist countries face.

Join us for an enlightening look into what it's like to visit and live under TRULY socialist governments. (Spoiler Alert: Sweden is NOT one of them).

Robert Lawson, PhD, is a clinical professor, the Jerome M. Fullinwider Centennial Chair in Economic Freedom, and director of the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He is a founding co-author of the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World annual report, which presents an economic freedom index for over 160 countries. Lawson has authored or co-authored over 100 academic publications and has over 14,000 Google Scholar citations. He is the co-author (with Ben Powell) of the Amazon bestseller, Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World (Regnery Publishing). 

Benjamin Powell, PhD is executive director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, a professor of economics in the Rawls College of Business and a Senior Fellow with the Independent Institute. In addition to co-authoring Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World with Bob Lawson, Powell is the author of Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy, co-author of Wretched Refuse: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions. He is author of more than 75 scholarly articles and policy studies. Dr. Powell's research findings have been cited more than 2,500 times in other scholarly studies and reported in hundreds of popular press outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Economist.

This event is presented by the Center for Free Enterprise in the College of Business as part of the CFE's Menard Family Lecture Series. It is Cardinal Flight approved for CoB students. Registration is not required and refreshments will be served.

*All University of Louisville College of Business programs are open to all eligible faculty, staff, and students regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age.