The Soho Forum is a debate society that holds debates on a wide-array of libertarian-centric topics.

Gene Epstein Gene Epstein (born 1944) is an American economist. He is best known for his work advancing libertarian principles and promoting free-market policies. He worked as the economics editor of '' Barron's Magazine'' from 1993 to 2018 where he wrote th ...

is the Director and Moderator of the Forum which has held debates on controversial issues such as

sex work Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to volun ...

Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

illegal drugs Illegal may refer to: Law * Violation of law ** Crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and uni ...

, and other topics.

History

Reason Magazine ''Reason'' is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation, with the tagline "Free Minds and Free Markets". The magazine aims to produce independent journalism that is "outside of the left/right echo chamber." A ...

published the first Soho Forum debate in November 2016. It was a debate between Nick Gillespie, Reason's editor-in-chief, versus

Walter Block Walter Edward Block (born August 21, 1941) is an American Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist theorist. He was the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Economics at the School of Business at Loyola University New Orlean ...

, a prominent Austrian economist, over the resolution, "Should Libertarians Vote for Trump?" The Forum has been exclusively moderated by

, a former economics editor of ''

Barron's ''Barron's'' (stylized in all caps) is an American weekly magazine and newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, since 1921. Founded as ''Barron's National Financial Weekly'' in 1921 by Clarence W. Barron (1855–19 ...

''. The Forum uses the Oxford-style debate method by which before the debate begins, the moderator asks the audience to cast their vote on the debate resolution. Immediately following the end of the debate, the audience shares their final vote and the side with the greater percentage change between the first and second vote wins the debate. The debates are regularly published to Reason,

C-Span Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

, as well as to the Forum's

Youtube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

References

{{Reflist Debates Libertarianism in the United States 2016 establishments in New York City SoHo, Manhattan

History

See also

References