Atlas’s Sound Money Panel  on December 7, 2010, attracted more than 100 guests including congressmen, economists, students, congressional staffers, and think tank leaders to a stimulating and enlightening conversation on the importance of a sound monetary system at the Capitol Hill Visitors Center. In collaboration with FreedomWorks Foundation, Atlas invited Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), Dr. Judy Shelton, Dr. Larry White, and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to give brief presentations for the panel entitled, “Sound Money and America’s Global Economic Leadership.”

The entire panel was covered live by C-SPAN, broadcasting to their audience of approximately 22 million viewers consisting of Democrats (30%), Republicans (26%), and Independents (28%).  Related video can be watched here (Paul Ryan) and here (Judy Shelton with Judge Napolitano).

Matt Kibbe, President and CEO of FreedomWorks Foundation, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit that recruits, educates, trains and mobilizes millions of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom, moderated the panel.

Invited first to speak was Atlas’s president, Alejandro Chafuen. Chafuen shared about his personal experience as a native of Argentina, having watched his countries’ most infamous dictator, Juan Perón, manipulate the central bank to destroy the rule of law and corrupt the morals of his fellow citizens.

Second to speak was Representative Mike Pence who discussed the implications of bailouts and “spending our way into prosperity” philosophies on ordinary American citizens. “Sound money is the very foundation of our prosperity. And it needs to be addressed.” Pence addressed his role as a policy maker on the Wall Street bailouts, and the impact of his failed efforts.

“To restore a growing economy, we must and all this runaway federal spending, and get back to the practice of free market economics without apology. The freedom to succeed must include the freedom to fail. The free market is what made Americas economy the greatest in the world and we cannot falter in our willingness to stand on those principles of freedom.”

Dr. Judy Shelton followed Representative Pence with an introduction to the Guide to Sound Money and a rundown on what it means to be in favor of sound money. She discussed the primary function of money as meant to provide a measure of value, a reference point.

“We all may build different houses, but we use the same measure… Its this common reference point – this measure, this standard – that, when applied to money, allows perfect strangers – buyers and sellers – to convey to each other the value of what they bring to the marketplace or what they seek from the marketplace, because money is the medium through which you set a price, and price conveys value.”

Dr. Shelton is the author of the Guide to Sound Money, a free publication only 23 pages long, that will be distributed worldwide.

Fourth to speak was Representative Paul Ryan, incoming Budget Committee Chairman who said, “Our fiscal policy is on a collision course with our monetary policy.” Ryan echoed his congressional colleague saying, “sound money is a necessary precondition for economic growth.”In addition to his insights on the Budget Committee and the monetizing of debt, Ryan gave accolades to both FreedomWorks Foundation’s and Atlas’s publication, Guide to Sound Money.

“This [the Guide to Sound Money] is probably the best 25 pages on money I have read in a long, long time. I’m going to be tweeting and facebooking this [the Guide] all day and all week long encouraging people to read this [the Guide].”

Last to speak was Dr. Larry White, professor of economics at George Mason University. Dr. White discussed the findings in his working paper co-authored with
The panel coincided with the official launch of the publication, A Guide to Sound Money, an educational pamphlet being made available through the joint support of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and FreedomWorks Foundation. Its author, Judy Shelton, is a prominent economist who predicted the downfall of the Soviet empire, authored Money Meltdown, and is the Co-Director of Atlas’s Sound Money Project. More than 100,000 copies of the Guide have been printed and will be distributed across the country through the expansive networks of both Atlas and FreedomWorks Foundation.

The Guide does not advocate any single approach to achieving sound money. Instead, it lays out core principles to define the fundamental purposes of money and to acknowledge the intent of the Founders in granting money powers to Congress. The entire Guide can be accessed in PDF format here. Printed copies were made available to event attendees.

December 2010

We’ve had a busy and very fruitful and successful year at Atlas. Our programs have expanded, we’ve opened up new channels to bring the ideas of liberty to more and more people, and our network of self-sustaining think tanks is growing.

Thirty years ago, Margaret Thatcher sent a letter to Atlas’s founder, Sir Antony Fisher.  It was a letter that Antony used to solicit seed funding for Atlas, through which he intended to create a worldwide network of independent free-market think tanks.

“I applaud your aim to build on the success of the [London-based Institute of Economic Affairs, by starting similar think tanks] in Europe, America and further afield.  I believe it deserves the most urgent and generous support of all concerned with the restoration of the market economy as the foundation of a free society.”

Today, we again find ourselves facing the kind of “crisis of confidence” that afflicted the free world at the end of the 1970s.

But thankfully, we have a vastly improved intellectual infrastructure, making the case for principles that can lead us back to peace and prosperity: free markets, individual liberty, and limited government under the rule of law.

This is because Fisher’s vision is being realized. Before Atlas was founded, there were fewer than a dozen independent free-market think tanks. Today, the Atlas network comprises more than 400 of these institutes— in 80 countries.

While you’re on our website, you should browse our map-based directory to learn of the many organizations connected to the Atlas Network.

I hope you take a lot of pride in what you find on the Atlas website, and what you read in our 2010 Year In Review report. You’ll be impressed with what we’re accomplishing.

I hope it will motivate you to join the generous individuals that provide financial support for our programs.

A few highlights:

• Atlas training programs provide think tank leaders with tools they can put to use right away to make their organizations more efficient and have a greater impact. Our graduates return home with refurbished business and fundraising plans, new management training, insights from industry leaders, and a support network of peers and mentors.

• Atlas launched new collaborative programs with think tanks in our network in 2010 to add value to U.S. policy debates on energy policy and sound money.

• Atlas’s discovery and outreach platforms ran essay contests and Freedom Schools in 11 different countries—teaching young people the principles of free markets and property rights in more than a dozen languages.

• New think tanks are taking off in Russia, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Tajikistan, Bolivia, and plans for more are in the pipeline for 2011.

It is a critical time to stay on offense, and strengthen the freedom movement.

If we are going to change public policy for the better, we need to get more people here at home and abroad informed and engaged in protecting our liberties.

I’m very proud to be able to work with such talented, productive, and passionately dedicated people around the globe who are spreading these seeds of freedom.  I hope we can count on you to partner in our efforts to beat back socialism and stand up for the ideas of a free society.

Atlas is very careful in how we invest the generous contributions from our partners like you. Our team members are well aware that all of the resources we have are made available by friends like you, and that we must be careful stewards of each and every penny.

As you make decisions about charitable contributions, I hope that you will remember that the Atlas teams are working day and night for freedom around the world. Making a donation today would be a great boost to our team.

We’ve got a lot to be proud of in Atlas’s first 30 years. But there’s a lot more to accomplish. In 2011, we’re going to win some victories for liberty. I hope you’ll stand by our side as we advance this vital cause.

Sincerely,

Bradley A. Lips

Chief Executive Officer

by Leonard P. Liggio

On July 30, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation sponsored a symposium on the legacy of Milton Friedman on the anniversary of his birth. I had the honor to be one of the speakers. Some of the discussion referred to Milton Friedman’s lectures at the Catholic University of Chile and the influence that his lectures had on the economic reforms in Chile. In passing it was noted that the success of the Chilean economic reforms have not been followed in many Latin American countries. It struck me that there is more to this development.

If we add other countries of the world in the comparison, there are interesting insights. One is that economic reforms to salvage the burden of the welfare state have been undertaken by Labor or Socialist parties in some countries. In England, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand – Labor or Socialist parties have spearheaded retrenchments or reforms to the welfare state. This has not been the case in southern European countries which have had long standing Communist parties to the left of the Socialist parties. Southern European countries parallel the process in Latin America.

In a book review for Policy Review, I analyzed some of the issues raised in Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, “It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States” (New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000). The authors concluded, “The rightward distance covered by the British Labour party between 1984 and 1995 is greater than that for any other party surveyed … The most direct way of summarizing the shift is to say, simply, that the Labour party is no longer socialist… Peter Mandelson, the ideologist of the Blairites, asserts that Labour now is “a market capitalist party” … Blair noted in an interview that his administration would ‘leave British law the most restrictive on trade unionism in the Western world.’”

Lipset and Marks analyzed Australia and New Zealand whose Conservative governments had pursued decades of state intervention, inflation and special interest legislation against the market. In Australia and New Zealand, the neoliberal market principles were applied by Labor parties whose programs were, “abandoning protectionist policies, deregulating the economy, privatizing state enterprises, and moving from centralized wage fixing through arbitration to a market system at the enterprise level.”

The Index of Economic Freedom and the Economic Freedom of the World Index, by the Heritage Foundation and Fraser Institute, respectively, have indicated that the freest economies are those in the Common Law tradition and in the Baltic Hanseatic world trade tradition. Thus, northern European and Australian and New Zealand Labor parties are often more market oriented than the conservative parties of southern Europe and Latin America. These are matters that need further study and reflection.