Associate Professor of Economics Charles Steele discusses the economy under Trump in Lane 124.
Courtesy | Megan Li
The three greatest threats to American liberty today are the government, the left, and malign foreign actors, said Charles Steele, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Commerce and Freedom, in a talk hosted by the Praxis Political Economy Club and the Classical Liberal Organization Feb. 27.
The lecture, called “We Dodged a Bullet: A Libertarian Analysis of the 2024 Election,” featured presentations from Steele and Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic that examined the events leading up to and proceeding from the election of President Donald Trump.
“I’m talking about two radically different regimes that we might have had, might have faced, and I think one is generally supportive of individual liberty — free markets in the American constitutional system — and one that is overtly hostile,” Steele said.
Steele cited Saule Omarova, a public policy advisor nominated by the Biden Administration to be the comptroller of currency in 2021, as an example of the federal government’s intended control.
“She’s made the following argument: all bank accounts, all private banking, should end,” Steele said. “The Federal Reserve will be the only deposit bank, and then the Federal Reserve will disperse money to the new National Investment Authority, and they will decide how it’s allocated.”
Steele said he hopes to see Trump abolish a federal cabinet position as a start.
“He’s put people in charge of all these agencies who are explicitly opposed to administrative rule and who are really challenging the bureaucracy,” Steele said.
Pongracic began his talk by quoting a post from the Substack “bad cattitude.”
“‘The American state has rotted and festered beneath us into something more predatory than protective,’” Pongracic read aloud.
When he watched movements like Black Lives Matter, the election of Joe Biden, and the New Green Deal between 2020 and 2024, Pongracic said he believed the American experiment had come to its end.
“The people that live in the Soviet era are looking at these people and going like, ‘Oh, geez, these guys are a little extreme, aren’t they?’” Pongracic said.
Pongracic said every action of the federal government for the past few years has been to enlarge and strengthen the government while subjugating the individual. The national debt is a case in point.
““I thought, ‘There’s no way in hell that they can double the debt again over the next eight years,’” Pongracic said about the Obama Administration. “And they said, ‘Hold my beer.’”
The conservative movement needs to change its mindset about losing in an “admirable” manner, according to Pongracic.
“That defeatist attitude has become such a big part of our self-identity that it’s prevented us from recognizing and taking a win,” Pongracic said. “Make no mistake about it — from the perspective of liberty, Trump is a massive, massive winner.”
Sophomore Brian Shia, president of Praxis and CLO, said Pongracic has a reputation for being pessimistic about the future of America, but he has become optimistic since Trump’s election.
“This is such a crazy change that I had to hold an event about it,” Shia said.
Both Steele and Pongracic agreed Trump is the most libertarian president they have seen in their lifetime. Senior Lauren Smyth said Steele and Pongracic were very engaging presenters and made strong cases.
“I never expected to hear Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan compared in an econ lecture, but there’s a first time for everything,” Smyth said.
Praxis and CLO will host a follow-up presentation from Associate Professor of Economics Christopher Martin called “Did We Dodge a Bullet?: The Conservative Alternative to Binary-Choice Politics,” Thursday, March 6th from 7 to 8 p.m. in Lane 124.
“What I’m most excited about is the shift toward more free-market and classical liberal ideas” Shia said. That is what will keep this project going on beyond Trump’s term as president.”
