The Wisconsin Forum is pleased to announce the following line-up of speakers for the 2024-25 season.
Scott Niederjohn, Professor of Economics & Director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University
Mark Schug, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
How Jackie Robinson and Adam Smith Cooperated to Desegregate Major League Baseball – In the 1940’s, Jim Crow laws and racial segregation were widespread. It is not surprising that owners of major league baseball clubs refused to hire African American players. So why in 1947, amid such racial discrimination, did Branch Rickey sign Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers and why did Robinson agree? Could free market forces have played a role in their decision?
John Koskinen, Chief Economist, Wisconsin Department of Revenue
Mark Skousen, Ph. D., editor of Forecasts & Strategies
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
“America’s Economist” Mark Skousen & Chief Economist for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, John Koskinen, offer thoughts and comments on the ramifications of the Presidential election – Skousen and Koskinen will offer a lightly moderated group discussion to address the local, state, and national fallout of the Presidential election.
Clark Neily, Senior Vice President for Legal Studies at the Cato Institute
Thursday, February 6, 2025
The Supreme Court vs. Leviathan – Among the Supreme Court’s most important functions is to ensure that the other branches of government do not exercise more power than the Constitution grants them. Since at least the 1930’s, however, the justices have all but given up confining the federal government to its enumerated federal powers while also virtually abandoning some of our most fundamental rights, including economic liberty and private property. That said, there have been several encouraging signs lately, including particularly the Court’s pushback against the excesses of the administrative state. Are those signs indicative of a larger trend, or simply evidence that even a fundamentally abdicationist Court can still get some things right?
Allen Mendenhall, Associate Dean and Grady Rosier Professor in the Sorrell College of Business at Troy University, Executive Director of the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy
Thursday, March 6, 2025
The Price of Academia: Unmasking the Hidden Costs – This presentation will focus on the financial burdens that universities impose on students, many of whom begin college in a precarious financial state, relying heavily on loans or parental support.
Kelley Vlahos, Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft and Senior Advisor at the Quincy Institute
Thursday, April 10, 2025
U.S. Proxy Wars and Entangling Alliances: A Post-Election Update – What will the next administration do about the most pressing foreign policy issues of the day: the ongoing war in Ukraine, rising tensions with China in the Indo Pacific and in the Middle East, will the next president help or hurt efforts to tamp down a regional crisis? Vlahos will talk about the politics in Washington: how the Congressional races have formed up new leadership (or not) on the foreign relations and armed services committees, how the two parties are positioning on these key issues and who the next president is putting into place to handle them, and how, by April when she presents, they are managing.