Event Information Jason Riley: "Why Thomas Sowell Matters"

The Concordia Free Enterprise Center’s Economics, Politics, and Philosophy on the Bluff speaker series hosts nationally known thought leaders that attract large audiences of students, faculty, staff, and community members.

Thursday, October 26
Jason Riley: "Why Thomas Sowell Matters"

• 6:00 p.m. in the Todd Wehr Auditorium (5:00 reception)
• Register HERE

OTHER DATES AND SPEAKERS

Tuesday, September 19
Jason Brennan: "Get a Job and Pay More Taxes: What Utopophiles Must Say to the Western Poor"

• 6:00 p.m. in the Todd Wehr Auditorium (5:00 reception)
• Register HERE

Thursday, November 9
John Koskinen: "An Update on the Wisconsin Economy"

• 6:00 p.m in the Robert W. Plaster Center Collaboratorium (5:00 reception)
• Register HERE

SPEAKER BIOS

JASON BRENNAN is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. He is the author of sixteen books, which have been translated twenty-nine times, including Why Not Capitalism?, Markets without Limits, and Democracy: A Guided Tour. He is the editor of Public Affairs Quarterly.

JASON RILEY is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he has written about politics, economics, education, immigration and social inequality for more than 25 years. He’s also a frequent public speaker and provides commentary for television and radio news outlets.

After joining the Journal in 1994, he was named a senior editorial page writer in 2000 and a member of the Editorial Board in 2005. He joined the Manhattan Institute, a public policy think tank focused on urban issues, in 2015.

Riley is the author of five books. In 2008 he published Let Them In, which argues for a more free-market oriented U.S. immigration system. His second book, Please Stop Helping Us, which is about government efforts to help the black underclass, was published in 2014. In 2017 he published False Black Power?, an assessment of why black political success has not translated into more economic advancement. In 2021 he published Maverick, a biography of the iconic economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell, and narrated the documentary film, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World. Riley’s most recent book, published in 2022, is The Black Boom, an analysis of black economic progress prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Riley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has also worked for USA Today and the Buffalo News. He lives in suburban New York City.

JOHN KOSKINEN serves as Chief Economist for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

John has testified on the Wisconsin economy before multiple standing committees of the
state legislature. He has presented on Wisconsin's economic outlook to various groups
including state and regional economic development associations, colleges and universities, financial institutions and trade associations. He is a frequent commentator on the Wisconsin economy for a variety of media outlets throughout the state and the country.

Prior to joining the Department of Revenue in 2007, John served as the Staff Economist
for the Governor's Budget Office, Wisconsin Department of Administration from 1979 to 2007.

He has also served in the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau and the Wisconsin Department
of Commerce.

John has his B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Marquette University. He has done additional graduate studies in Economics at Northwestern University and computer science at the University of Wisconsin.