Upcoming Events

Get involved with the exciting and engaging lectures, film screenings, workshops and symposiums happening at the Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity in the Coles College of Business.

Spring 2024 Lectures

  • Phil Gramm
    Dates: March 22, 2024

    Lecture: "The Myth of American Inequality"
    Time: 2:30 pm - 3:20 pm
    Location: Burruss Building 151

    Speaker: Phil Gramm, Former United States Senator.

    An economist by training, Senator Phil Gramm has had a long and distinguished career in public service, academia and the private sector. Before joining AEI, Sen. Gramm was the vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank, where he provided strategic economic, political and policy advice to important corporate and institutional clients. He served in the US Congress representing Texas for more than two decades, first as the 6th congressional district representative to the US House of Representatives, then later as senator. His legislative record includes landmark bills like the Gramm-Latta Budget – which reduced federal spending, rebuilt national defense and mandated the Reagan tax cut – and the Gramm-Rudman Act, which placed the first binding constraints on federal spending. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Gramm steered legislation modernizing banking, insurance and securities laws. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act amended the 70-year-old Glass-Steagall Act,  allowing banks, security companies and insurance companies to affiliate through a financial services holding company.  Sen. Gramm taught economics at Texas A&M University for 12 years before becoming a member of Congress. He has published numerous articles and books on subjects ranging from private property, monetary theory and policy to the economics of mineral extraction. As a visiting scholar at AEI, he will be working on a comprehensive plan to fix the US economy through reform of the tax code and entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

    Phil Gramm Flyer

  • Patrick Higgins
    Date: March 25, 2024

    Lecture 1: "The Atlanta Fed's GDP Nowcasting Model"
    Time: 11:15 am - 12:05 pm
    Location: English Building 102

    Lecture 2: “Macroeconomic Prospects for the U.S.”
    Time: 12:20 pm - 1:10 pm
    Location: English Building 102

    Speaker: Patrick Higgins, Policy Advisor and Economist, The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

    Patrick Higgins is a policy adviser and economist on the macroeconomics and monetary policy team in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He helps develop forecasting models and contributes to the Atlanta Fed's weekly Deflation Probabilities report. Higgins also helped develop the Atlanta Fed's GDP Now "nowcasting" forecast to help monitor the state of the economy in real time. His research interests include macroeconomics, econometrics, and forecasting. He was promoted to senior economist in 2013. He also contributes to the Atlanta Fed's macroblog, which provides commentary on economic topics, including monetary policy, macroeconomic developments, and the Southeast economy.

    Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed as an economist in 2007, Higgins spent seven years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. There, he served as a research assistant and economic analyst.

    Higgins's work has appeared in the International Journal of Finance & Economics, as well as the Cleveland Fed's Economic Commentary. He is a member of the National Association for Business Economics.

    A native of Columbus, Ohio, Higgins earned a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics from Oberlin College.

    Patrick Higgins

  • Lawrence H. White
    Date: March 29, 2024

    Lecture 1: "Contrasting the Gold, Fiat, and Bitcoin Standards"
    Time: 11:15 am - 12:05 pm
    Location: English Building 102

    Lecture 2: "How the Gold Standard Works"
    Time: 12:20 pm - 1:10 pm
    Location: English Building 102

    Speaker: Lawrence H. White, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

    Lawrence H. White specializes in the theory and history of banking and money. He previously taught at New York University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Professor White is the author of The Clash of Economic Ideas (2012), The Theory of Monetary Institutions (1999), Free Banking in Britain (2nd ed., 1995), and Competition and Currency (1989). He is the editor of The History of Gold and Silver (3 vols., 2000), Free Banking (3 vols., 1993), and other volumes. His articles on monetary theory and banking history have appeared in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, and other leading professional journals. In 2014 he received the Adam Smith Award of the Association for Private Enterprise Education. He has been a visiting research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, a visiting lecturer at the Swiss National Bank, and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Professor White is a co-editor of Econ Journal Watch and a member of the board of associate editors of the Review of Austrian Economics. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a senior scholar of the Cato Institute Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.

    Lawrence H. White

Spring 2024 Film Screenings

  • Throw a Billion Dollars from a Helicopter
    Date: April 10, 2024
    Time: 10:10 am - 12:05 pm
    Location: Science 109

    Film Description: With a few billion dollars between them, Ray Davis and Bob Simpson are two of the richest men in Texas. So why are they looking for a $500 million handout from the Arlington city council?

    Because Simpson and Davis are also the owners of the Texas Rangers, a Major League Baseball team, and they want a new stadium. That, despite the fact that their current ballpark is A) gorgeous and B) barely 20 years old.

    With the unconditional support of a pliant municipal government and a campaign war chest pushing $2 million, Rangers ownership had to think winning voter approval for a new stadium—and the half-billion dollar government subsidy to help finance it— was a mere formality. But, armed with just a few social media accounts and less than $10,000 among them, a handful of local citizens waged a grass roots battle against the stadium that, on the eve of the election, had the proposal polling in a dead heat.

    ‘Throw A Billion Dollars from the Helicopter’ is only nominally a sports documentary. It’s a David vs. Goliath political battle about how we collectively decide to transfer wealth (here upwards). Only in Arlington, Texas, the giant trying to hand out the largest direct public subsidy for a baseball stadium ever and the diminutive adversaries trying to stop it are both small-government, anti-tax Republicans.

    Throw a Billion Dollars from a Helicopter Flyer

  • In Money We Trust? movie poster
    Date: April 17, 2024
    Time: 12:20 pm - 1:15 pm
    Location: Science Building 109

    Film Description: In Money We Trust?  is an illuminating one-hour public television documentary that answers the question, “what is money?”  

    In a narrative that begins in ancient times and takes us to the present day, In Money We Trust? explains how, 2,500 years ago, the invention of money provided a shared measure of value that facilitated trade and cooperation between strangers. Sound, trustworthy money has throughout history fueled great human achievement—from the emergence of philosophy to the high-tech revolution. The program also explores the destructive consequences that ensue when inflation or other forms of instability cause money not to be trusted. In the most extreme instances, such as in Weimar Germany or present-day Venezuela, the economy—and social order—collapses.

    Coming on the anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis, this timely documentary shows how the loss of trust in money during modern times has given rise to cryptocurrencies, greater income inequality and social turmoil.  Featured are more than 20 distinguished experts including former Federal Reserve Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker; and Adam Fergusson, author of “When Money Dies,” the definitive history of the Weimar hyperinflation.

    Presented by Maryland Public Television, Our Town Films and BOLDE Communications, In Money We Trust Is? is based on the book, Money: How The Destruction of the Dollar Threatens The Global Economy—and What We Can Do About It, co-authored by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames.

    In Money We Trust?

 

Past Events