An Interview with Samuel Gregg
America’s entrepreneurial spirit is part of what defines its national character. Americans celebrate the notion that one can build a business from the ground up by virtue of sheer determination and perseverance, whether it’s a neighborhood ice cream shop or a global auto company. This zeal for free enterprise quickly catapulted the country into an economic powerhouse and continues to captivate dreamers and innovators throughout the world.
Yet America faces real obstacles to sustaining an environment that’s ripe for entrepreneurship. Burdensome red tape, a dire debt crisis and the vast expansion of the administrative state are barriers to entry and growth for businesses.
Our guest on this episode of Voices of Freedom is Samuel Gregg, one the country’s preeminent free enterprise scholars and a 2024 Bradley Prize winner. He shares his thoughts on how to keep America’s entrepreneurial vitality strong, as well as insights into current economic debates.
Samuel Gregg is the Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research. He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, monetary theory and policy, and natural law theory. He's the author of 16 books, including his most recent book, The Next American Economy: Nation, State and Markets in an Uncertain World.
Topics discussed on this episode:
- America’s support of free enterprise compared to other countries
- How entrepreneurial success stories have shaped Gregg’s perspective
- Improving the climate and outlook for American industry
- Big Tech, woke capitalism and the weakening of the family
- How proponents of limited government can address the breakdown of civil society
- China’s economic outlook and lessons for the US
- The intersection of markets and morality
- The conditions that will allow the next generation of entrepreneurs to succeed
- What it means to win a Bradley Prize