Lawrence "Larry" W. Reed (born September 29,1953),also known as Larry Reed,is president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE),where he has served as the Humphreys Family Senior Fellow since May 2019. Before joining FEE,Reed served as president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy,a Midland,Michigan-based free-market think tank. To date,he remains Mackinac's president emeritus.[2]
Steve Forbes interviewed Lawrence W. Reed,they discussed his book Was Jesus a Socialist?,Reed arguing that Jesus's teachings do not align with socialism. such as the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,support voluntary contracts and private property,not socialism. Reed emphasizes that Jesus valued personal choice and charity,rejecting forced redistribution and aligning with free-market principles.[3][4]
Reed launched the Telugu translation of Leonard E. Read's 1958 essay I,Pencil,the first translation of Leonard's work in the Asian subcontinent. I,Pencil was translated by Raghavendar Askani of the Swatantrata Center,Youth Parliament Program. Reed has commented on the advancement of liberal thought in India,highlighting the novel Vihangam by Gangaraju Gunnam,a noted Indian film producer and screenwriter. Reed described Vihangam as akin to an Indian version of Ayn Rand'sAtlas Shrugged,emphasizing its alignment with free-market and individualist principles.[5][6]
Early life and education
Reed was born and raised in Pennsylvania,United States.
Reed has cited the 1968 event between the Czechs and the Soviets known as the "Prague Spring" as the genesis for his interest in liberty,and has referred to the Czech cause as a "flowering of liberty". As a result of interactions with FEE in his teen years,Reed became exposed to the ideas of Friedrich Hayek,Ludwig von Mises,and others from the Austrian school of economics.[7][8]
From 1977 to 1984,Reed taught economics at Midland,Michigan's Northwood University,serving as chairman of the Department of Economics from 1982 to 1984. While at Northwood,Reed designed the university's dual major in economics and business management and founded its annual "Freedom Seminar".
Reed's interests in political and economic affairs have taken him as a freelance journalist to 81 countries on six continents since 1985.[10] Over the past twenty-five years,he has reported on hyperinflation in South America,black markets from behind the Iron Curtain,reforms and repression in China and Cambodia,and civil war inside Nicaragua and Mozambique. Additionally,he spent time with the Contra rebels during the Nicaraguan civil war;and lived for two weeks with Mozambique rebel forces at their bush headquarters in 1991,while the country was engaged at the height of their guerrilla conflict. Among many foreign experiences,Reed visited Cambodia in 1989 with his late friend,Academy Award winner Haing S. Ngor.[11]
From 1987 to 2008,Reed served as the president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. According to TheNew York Times,under his leadership,the Mackinac Center emerged as one of the largest and most influential state-level policy institutes in the United States.[15] The concept of the Overton window was developed during the time that Reed was president of the Mackinac Center. The "Overton window" refers to the range of ideas which are considered culturally and politically fringe to mainstream,and when a subject matter moves along this spectrum it is considered to have changed its status along the "Overton window". According to the Mackinac Center,"The Overton Window was developed in the mid-1990s by the late Joseph P. Overton,who was senior vice president at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy at the time of his death in 2003."[16][17]
Long active in Michigan policy,Reed was appointed in 1993 by the state's then-Governor John Engler (R) to the Headlee Amendment Blue Ribbon Commission. The commission was established as part of the state's 1978 "Headlee amendment" for the purpose of limiting local and state government spending.[18] It was officially abolished in 2004 by former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.[19]
In 1994,Reed was named to the Secchia Commission on Total Quality Government,a task force charged by Governor Engler to streamline Michigan state government. Engler and many of his administration's officials frequently cited the work of the Mackinac Center as influential in shaping administration policies.[20]
During a 2003 address on the floor of the House of Representatives,CongressmanRon Paul paid tribute to Reed,acknowledging him as "one of America's leading advocates for liberty",and remarked that Reed's writings "reflect his unswerving commitment to limited government and the free market as the best way to promote human happiness."[21][22]
On September 1,2008,Reed became president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). FEE,founded in 1946 by Leonard Read,has been recognized as the first not-for-profit organization of its kind,familiarizing people with free-market economics.[independent source needed] As president,Reed hoped to reassert FEE's position as a "mothership" for the freedom movement at large.[7] According to Reed,"FEE believes a free society is not only possible,it is imperative because there is no acceptable alternative for a civilized people. Our vision for the future is that through education,men and women will understand the moral,philosophic and economic principles that undergird a free society. They will appreciate the direct connection between those principles and their material and spiritual welfare. They will strive to pass those principles on from one generation to the next."[23][24]
Economic philosophy
Reed identifies with the Austrian School of economics and has referred to competition as one of the highest and most beneficial forms of human cooperation.[25][26][27]
Writing
Reed's 2012 book is A Republic –If We Can Keep It,is a collection of essays by Reed and historian Burton W. Folsom,Jr. that surveys the economic history of the United States and the modern world.[28]
Another of Reed's books is Striking the Root:Essays on Liberty,a bundling of works on the topic of government use of force,previously published in FEE's magazine,The Freeman.[29]
Reed's other books include Lessons from the Past:The Silver Panic of 1893,and Private Cures for Public Ills:The Promise of Privatization,both published by the Foundation for Economic Education,and When We Are Free,with Dale M. Haywood.
In 1981 he wrote the short Great Myths of the Great Depression,which criticized various conceptions about the American Great Depression.[30]
Reed was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Northwood University in 2008. Reed is also the recipient of the Grove City College Distinguished Alumni Award.[31]
Reed was awarded the highest distinction Poland bestows upon a foreigner. the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by Poland President Andrzej Duda[32] He received it on November 11th,2023. The award recognized Reed's decades of support for Polish freedom,including his crucial assistance to the anti-communist underground in the 1980s and his efforts to promote free-market ideas in Poland. [33]
Reed, Lawrence W. (2016). Real heroes: inspiring true stories of courage, character, and conviction. Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books. ISBN978-1610171427. OCLC951506677.
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