The O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom hosted “Free Market Solutions for Today’s Toughest Problems,” on Friday, Oct. 14. Michael Cox, director of the O’Neil Center and former chief economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told the audience that the day would be dedicated to considering “how to fix things without big government.”  Conference attendees from among the area’s top business leaders filled the Collins Center at the SMU Cox School of Business from 8:30am to 1:30pm.   

Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens, Inc., a privately owned investment bank in Little Rock, Arkansas was the keynote speaker.  Mr. Stephens used a series of graphs to show the impact of government policies on business and investment returns in the U.S. over recent decades.  He closed his speech with a call to the audience to speak up for the policies they believe in and to pay attention to the policies of political candidates.   “Economics and capital creation are ultimately political issues,” said Stephens.

Other speakers included Brian Habacivch, the Senior Vice President of Research and Publications at Fellon McCord. He focused on this country’s readily available resources in a lecture entitled “Fortress America: A Resource Rich Island of Stability in a Sea of Turmoil.”    

O’Neil Center director Michael Cox talked about the importance of free markets in keeping the American economy strong.  He said that using different measures of living standards in this country, capitalism is the economic system that best provides for the progress of all nations’ economies.

John Goodman, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis and the  Kellye Wright Fellow in health care, which seeks to promote a more patient-centered, consumer-driven health care system, spoke about free market solutions in health care and cited what he believes are significant problems with the Obama Health Care Plan. 

On the education front, Lisa Snell, Director of Education at the non-profit Reason Foundation, made the case that while spending on public schools has doubled and tripled in recent decades, educational outcomes, as measured by test scores, have not improved.

Michael Tanner, Senior Fellow and Director of Social Security Choice project, CATO Institute explained an alternative individual account method of funding Social Security and Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program, discussed economic consequences that he said often go overlooked when shaping policy.

This was the third annual conference hosted by the O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom.

About SMU Cox

SMU's Cox School of Business offers a full range of business education programs, including BBA, full-time MBA, Professional MBA (PMBA), Executive MBA (EMBA), Master of Science in Management (MSM) and Executive Education. The school also offers a number of unique resources and activities for students, ranging from its Business Leadership Center (BLC), Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, Maguire Energy Institute and American Airlines Global Leadership Program (AAGLP) to its Associate Board Executive Mentoring Program and an international alumni network with chapters in more than 20 countries. SMU Cox is ranked among the top business schools nationally and internationally by major publications, including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes and U.S. News & World Report.

About SMU

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.