Fred L. Smith Jr. is founder and former president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's enc ...

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental o ...

. He has written on topics such as

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

law,

environmental regulation Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...

, and the economic impacts of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

Education

Smith holds a B.S. degree in Theoretical Mathematics and Political Science from Tulane University where he earned the Arts and Sciences Medal (Tulane’s highest academic award) and was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...

Career

Smith served as Director of Government Relations for the Council for a Competitive Economy, as a senior economist for the Association of American Railroads, and for five years as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency. Currently, he sits on the Institute Turgot in Belgium. Smith founded the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 1984. In 2003, Smith lobbied the

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

against a proposal that would require banks to report interest earned by non-resident aliens. Smith argued that foreign investors' willingness to invest in the United States depends on how they are treated by financial regulators. Smith appeared on '' Crossfire'' in 2006 and stated: "We know that there are these elaborate computer models that have never been right before, may be right this time, that suggest climate changes, possibly good, possibly bad. Most of the indications right now are it looks pretty good. Warmer winters, warmer nights, no effects during the day because of clouding, sounds to me like we’re moving to a more benign planet, more rain, richer, easier productivity to agriculture.". Smith defended contributions of companies such as

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...

to groups skeptical of climate change, explaining that support for such organizations can be expected to rise as public interest in global warming issues increases, saying, "Firefighters' budgets go up when fires go up." Smith has served as an

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active i ...

delegate to international environmental conferences such as the 1992

Rio Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

and the

UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in t ...

third Conference of the Parties in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the cit ...

, Japan.

Personal life

Smith was born in Pearl River, Louisiana. He is married to Frances B. Smith, an adjunct scholar at CEI who also serves on its board of directors.http://politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=4114&name=Fred-Smith-Jr Fred Smith Jr.

Bibliography

Volume contributor

* ''Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths'' * ''True State of the Planet'' * ''Corporate Aftershock: The Public Policy Lessons from the Collapse of Enron and Other Major Corporations'' * ''Solutions for an Environment in Peril'' * ''Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century'' * ''Assessing the Reagan Years'' *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Fred L. American libertarians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American political writers American male non-fiction writers Tulane University alumni Competitive Enterprise Institute