Amid the current economic and financial crises, President Obama may do well to remember the men who have come before him. As we move toward his first 100 days in office, there is much that can be learned from George Washington, Martin Van Buren, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and others. Has the exercise of executive power protected civil and economic liberties? Have attempts to occupy and “nation-build” in the Mideast and elsewhere been successful? What about federal intervention in the economy?

Please join us as Ivan Eland, author of Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, and political scientist Andrew R. Rutten examine these issues and highlight the historical “dos” and “don’ts” of the Oval Office.

Was George W. Bush the worst president ever? Ivan Eland, author of the provocative new book, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, examines Bush’s presidency and those of his predecessors to determine if their policies promoted peace, prosperity, and liberty while upholding the Constitution they swore to protect.

When assessing presidential success, many historians and other analysts excessively reward charisma, executive activism, and, regardless of a president’s role in initiating or abetting such an event, the use of power during a war or crisis. At this upcoming Independent Policy Forum, Dr. Eland, Congressman Ron Paul, and historian Richard Shenkman will avoid taking a biased approach as they evaluate the United States presidents based on their efforts to uphold the Constitution and encourage the country’s well being. The speakers will also share their predictions on how Barack Obama will fare in the White House by comparing his campaign promises to Eland’s criteria for presidential success.
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Half the people in the world live on two dollars or less per day and roughly 600 million live on no more than one dollar per day. With thousands of international relief organizations, and billions of dollars in foreign aid, why do so many impoverished countries remain unable to grow their economies beyond mere survival? At this upcoming Policy Forum, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa, former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga, renowned economist William R. Easterly, and a distinguished group of policy experts will examine the case studies from around the world in the new book, Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit. The speakers will examine real-world examples of entrepreneurship and discuss why instead of redistributing existing wealth, governments should free the people of developing countries in order to create it.