Event Information Liberty, Faith, and Economics Summit

The Concordia Free Enterprise Center (CFEC) hosts the annual Liberty, Faith, and Economics Summit.

11:30 AM: Lunch | Robert W. Plaster Center Collaboratorium

12:15 PM: On a Classically Liberal Constitution with Mr. Rick Esenberg | Robert W. Plaster Center Collaboratorium

1:30 PM: The Next American Economy - Dr. Samuel Gregg | Robert W. Plaster Center Collaboratorium

2:45 PM: Current Issues for Economic Liberty with Dr. Andrew Stuttaford | Robert W. Plaster Center Collaboratorium

5:00 PM: Reception | Concordia Center for Environmental Stewardship (CCES)

6:00 PM: How Entrepreneurs, Not Government, Built America - Mr. Steve Forbes | Keynote Speaker | Concordia Center for Environmental Stewardship (CCES) in partnership with Young America's Foundation

About Mr. Rick Esenberg:

Rick Esenberg is the founder and current President and General Counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a rapidly expanding law and policy organization headquartered in Milwaukee. Under Rick’s leadership, WILL has grown into one of the more active state-based think tanks and litigation centers in the country. Rick is a frequent litigator in state and federal courts and nationally recognized scholar and commentator on constitutional law, particularly the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and religion.

He is one of the leading experts on the Wisconsin Constitution and a frequent advocate before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Rick’s work seeks to advance the rule of law and individual liberty, formed by a robust civil society that forms individual and community character, preserving the wisdom of the past and an openness to the future.

About Dr. Samuel Gregg:

Samuel Gregg is the President and Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research. He has a D.Phil. in moral philosophy and political economy from Oxford University, and an M.A. in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne.

He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, monetary theory and policy, and natural law theory. He is the author of seventeen books, including On Ordered Liberty (2003), The Commercial Society (2007), Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy (2010); Becoming Europe (2013); Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization (2019); The Essential Natural Law (2021); and The Next American Economy: Nation, State and Markets in an Uncertain World (2022). Two of his books have been short-listed for Conservative Book of the Year, and one of his books was short-listed for the 2023 Hayek Prize. Many of his books and over 700 articles and opinion pieces have been translated into a variety of languages.

He has published in journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; Journal of Markets & Morality; Economic Affairs; Law and Investment Management; Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines; Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy; Oxford Analytica; Communio; Journal of Scottish Philosophy; University Bookman; Foreign Affairs; and Policy. He is a regular writer of opinion-pieces which appear in publications such as the Wall Street Journal; Foreign Affairs; The Daily Telegraph; First Things; Investors Business Daily; The Spectator; Law and Liberty; Washington Times; Washington Examiner; Revue Conflits; American Banker; National Review; Public Discourse; American Spectator; El Mercurio; Australian Financial Review; Jerusalem Post; La Nacion; and Business Review Weekly. He has served as an editorial consultant for the Italian journal, La Societa, and American correspondent for the German newspaper Die Tagespost. He has also been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Reuters, and the Holy See’s L’Osservatore Romano.

In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Member of the Mont Pèlerin Society in 2004. In 2008, he was elected a Member of the Philadelphia Society, and a Member of the Royal Economic Society. He served as President of the Philadelphia Society from 2019-2021. He was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Philadelphia Society in 2023. He is also a Contributor to Law and Liberty and an Affiliate Scholar at the Acton Institute. In May 2024, he was profiled in the Wall Street Journal.

He is the General Editor of Lexington Books’ Studies in Ethics and Economics Series. He also sits on the Academic Advisory Boards of the Institute of Economic Affairs, London; Campion College, Sydney; La Fundación Burke, Madrid; the Instituto Fe y Libertad, Guatemala; and the Friedman-Hayek Center at the Universidad de CEMA, Buenos Aires. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Markets and Morality and Revista Valores en la sociedad industrial. His acceptance speech.

In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Bradley Prize by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. This Prize honors scholars and practitioners whose accomplishments reflect the Bradley Foundation’s mission to restore, strengthen, and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism.

About Dr. Andrew Stuttaford:

He took up full-time positions with National Review and National Review Institute in March 2020 and is now the editor of National Review's Capital Matters, a new initiative focused on financial and economic coverage.

Prior to joining National Review and National Review Institute, Andrew, who qualified as an attorney in the U.K., worked in the international financial markets for nearly four decades, latterly as the CEO of the U.S. subsidiary of a Nordic investment bank. Andrew has written for a wide range of publications over the years including the Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, The Weekly Standard and Standpoint on political, economic and cultural matters and has been writing for National Review since his debut with the magazine in 1992.

About Mr. Steve Forbes:

Steve Forbes is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media.

Steve’s newest project is the podcast “What’s Ahead,” where he engages the world’s top newsmakers, politicians and pioneers in business and economics in honest conversations meant to challenge traditional conventions as well as featuring Steve’s signature views on the intersection of society, economic and policy.

Steve helped create the recently released and highly acclaimed public television documentary, In Money We Trust?, which was produced under the auspices of Maryland Public television. The film was inspired by the book he co-authored, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It.

Steve’s latest book is Reviving America: How Repealing Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code and Reforming The Fed will Restore Hope and Prosperity co-authored by Elizabeth Ames (McGraw-Hill Professional).

Steve writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under the heading of “Fact and Comment.” A widely respected economic prognosticator, he is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The prize was formerly given by U.S. Steel Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.

In both 1996 and 2000, Steve campaigned vigorously for the Republican nomination for the Presidency. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for working Americans, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits and a strong national defense. Steve continues to energetically promote this agenda.

This event is sponsored by Young America's Foundation as part of their Free Enterprise Lecture Series.