Mark Skousen#FreedomFest

{{for|other persons with the surname Skousen|Skousen (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox economist

| school_tradition = Austrian School of Economics

| birth_name = Mark Andrew Skousen

| image = Mark Skousen Library 01 600 900.jpg

| image_size = 200

| name = Mark Skousen

| caption =Skousen in 2004

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1947|10|19|mf=y}}

| birth_place = San Diego, California, United States

| field = Economics

| institution =

| influences = Adam Smith
Karl Marx
John Maynard Keynes
Ludwig von Mises
W. Cleon Skousen

| influenced =

| spouse = Jo Ann

| contributions =

| awards =

|education=Brigham Young University (BA, MA)
George Washington University (PhD)}}

Mark Andrew Skousen ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|k|aʊ|z|ən}}; born October 19, 1947) is an American economist and writer. He currently teaches at Chapman University,{{Cite web|url=https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/mark-skousen|title=Chapman University Faculty Page|website=Chapman University|access-date=November 10, 2019|archive-date=September 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923164055/https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/mark-skousen|url-status=live}} where he has been the Doti-Spogli chair in free enterprise at the Argyros School of Business and Economics since 2022.{{Cite web |last=Metzger |first=Cerise Valenzuela |date=2022-08-12 |title=Presidential Fellow Mark Skousen named Doti-Spogli Chair in Free Enterprise at Chapman University |url=https://news.chapman.edu/2022/08/12/presidential-fellow-mark-skousen-named-doti-spogli-chair-in-free-enterprise-at-chapman-university/ |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=Chapman Newsroom |language=en |archive-date=2024-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923164058/https://news.chapman.edu/2022/08/12/presidential-fellow-mark-skousen-named-doti-spogli-chair-in-free-enterprise-at-chapman-university/ |url-status=live }}

Early life, education and family

Skousen was born on October 19, 1947, in San Diego, California, and grew up in Portland, Oregon. Conservative political commentator and survival strategist Joel Skousen and linguist Royal Skousen are his older brothers. He is the nephew of W. Cleon Skousen, the political conservative and activist. Mark Skousen earned his B.A. and Master's degree in economics from Brigham Young University and his PhD in economics from George Washington University in 1977.

Skousen is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/testimonies/scholars/mark-skousen|title=Mark Skousen|access-date=2021-07-26|archive-date=2021-07-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726205059/https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/testimonies/scholars/mark-skousen|url-status=live}} He has five children with his wife Jo Ann.

Career

Skousen was an economic analyst for the CIA from 1972 to 1975.{{Cite web |date=2017-10-19 |title=Five Minutes with Ex-CIA Economist Mark Skousen, Chief Proponent of Gross Output & Founder of FreedomFest |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-minutes-with-ex-cia-economist-mark-skousen-chief_b_59e60469e4b0a741e4b35420 |access-date=2023-10-01 |website=HuffPost |language=en}} He later worked as a consultant for IBM and Hutchinson Technology, and other companies.{{Cite web|url=https://townhall.com/columnists/markskousen/|title=TownHall|date=July 1, 2017|website=TownHall|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706071519/https://townhall.com/columnists/markskousen/|archive-date=July 6, 2017|access-date=July 1, 2017|url-status=bot: unknown}} He was a columnist for Forbes magazine from 1997 to 2001, and has contributed articles to The Wall Street Journal as well as to various libertarian periodicals. He has been a speaker at investment conferences and {{cite web |url=http://www.intershow.com/ |title=MoneyShow : About Us |website=Intershow.com |access-date=2016-03-30 |archive-date=2024-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923164608/https://www.moneyshow.com/ |url-status=live }} has lectured for think tanks.{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/ |title=Cato Institute | Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace |website=Cato.org |access-date=2016-03-30 |archive-date=2007-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102023322/http://www.cato.org/ |url-status=live }} From 2008 to 2010 he was a weekly contributor on CNBC's Kudlow & Company and has also appeared on C-SPAN Book TV and Fox News. Skousen has been the editor of the Forecasts & Strategies financial newsletter since 1980. He also is the editor of four trading services (Five Star Trader, Low-Priced Stock Trader, Fast Money Alert, and TNT Trader.) and publishes the Investor CAFÉ weekly electronic newsletter.

File:AEA 2025 - Skousen Furman Cass Clausing Burkhauser.jpg, Kimberly Clausing, Jason Furman, Richard Burkhauser at AEA 2025]]

=Academia=

Skousen has lectured on economics and finance at Columbia Business School,{{Cite web|url=https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/leadership/newsn/561/whole-foods-founder-offers-new-business-paradigm|title=Whole Foods Founder Offers New Business Paradigm|first=Columbia Business|last=School|date=September 13, 2007|website=The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics}}{{Failed verification|date=May 2024}} Barnard College, Mercy College, Rollins College,{{Cite web|url=https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications/the-region/econ-101-is-this-the-best-way-to-teach-economics|title=Econ 101: Is this the Best Way to Teach Economics?|date=July 1, 2017|website=Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis|access-date=July 1, 2017|archive-date=June 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628105729/https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications/the-region/econ-101-is-this-the-best-way-to-teach-economics|url-status=dead}} and Chapman University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/mark-skousen|title=Chapman University/Our Faculty|date=July 1, 2017|access-date=July 1, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923164055/https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/mark-skousen|url-status=live}} In April 2005, distance education provider Grantham University renamed its online School of Business "The Mark Skousen School of Business."{{Cite web|url=https://www.grantham.edu/in-the-news/announcing-the-mark-skousen-school-of-business/|title=Grantham University In the News|date=April 5, 2005|access-date=May 18, 2018|archive-date=September 23, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240923164712/https://www.grantham.edu/college-of-business/|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.grantham.edu/academics/college_business.php |title=Online Mark Skousen School of Business |website=Grantham.edu |access-date=2016-03-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527164437/https://www.grantham.edu/academics/college_business.php |archive-date=2010-05-27 }} He currently teaches at Chapman University, where he has been the Doti-Spogli chair in free enterprise at The Argyros School of Business and Economics since 2022.

=Foundation for Economic Education=

Skousen served as president of the libertarian economic think tank The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) from 2001 to 2002. Skousen's brief tenure as president of FEE ended on a controversial note when he resigned in late 2002 at the request of the organization's board of trustees. During his tenure at FEE, Skousen launched a non-partisan, libertarian conference, then titled "FEEFest," which premiered in Las Vegas in 2002. After Skousen left the presidency at FEE, the conference continued as "FreedomFest," first under the purview of Young America's Foundation, and later, under Skousen's own direction and ownership.

= Economics =

Skousen is a proponent of Gross Output (GO), an economic concept used to measure total economic activity in the production of new goods and services in an accounting period. Skousen highlighted the concept in his work, The Structure of Production in 1990.{{Cite book |last=Skousen |first=Mark |url=https://archive.org/details/structureofprodu0000skou |title=The Structure of Production |publisher=New York University Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0814778951 |url-access=registration}}

Written works

Academic books

The Structure of Production (New York University Press, 1990) {{ISBN|0-8147-7895-X}}
Economics on Trial (Irwin McGraw Hill, 1991; 2nd edition, 1993) {{ISBN|1-55623-372-8}}
Dissent on Keynes, editor (Praeger Publishing, 1992) {{ISBN|027593778X}}
Puzzles and Paradoxes in Economics, co-authored with Kenna C. Taylor (Edward Elgar, 1997) {{ISBN|1840640499}}
Economic Logic (Capital Press, 2000, 2008, 2011, 2014). {{ISBN|1621572226}}
The Making of Modern Economics (M. E. Sharpe Publishers, 2001, 2009) {{ISBN|0765622270}}
The Power of Economic Thinking (Foundation for Economic Education, 2002) {{ISBN|1572462019}}
Vienna and Chicago: Friends or Foes? A Tale of Two Schools of Free-Market Economics (Capital Press, 2005) {{ISBN|0895260298}}
The Completed Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, compiled and edited by Mark Skousen (Regnery Books, 2006) {{ISBN|0895260336}}
The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes (M. E. Sharpe, 2007) {{ISBN|0765616947}}
EconoPower: How a New Generation of Economists Is Transforming the World (Wiley & Sons, 2008) {{ISBN|0470138076}}
High Finance on a Low Budget (Bantam Books, 1981, Dearborn, 1993), co-authored with Jo Ann Skousen {{ISBN|079312557X}}
The Complete Guide to Financial Privacy (Simon & Schuster, 1983) {{ISBN|0932496113}}
The Investor's Bible: Mark Skousen's Principles of Investment (Phillips Publishing, 1992)
Secrets of the Great Investors, editor, audio tape series, narrated by Louis Rukeyser (Knowledge Products, 1997, 2006) {{ISBN|078616526X}}
The New Scrooge Investing (McGraw Hill, 2000) {{ISBN|9780071355001}}
Investing in One Lesson (Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2007) {{ISBN|1596985224}}
Maxims of Wall Street (Skousen Publishing, Inc 2011) {{ISBN|1596982985}}
A Viennese Waltz Down Wall Street (Laissez Faire Books, 2013) {{ISBN|1621290921}}

Academic journal articles

"Saving the Depression: A New Look at World War II," Review of Austrian Economics, 1987, vol. 2, No. 1
"A Review of the New Palgrave," Review of Austrian Economics, 1988, vol. 3, No. 1
"The Perseverance of Paul Samuelson's Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring, 1997), 137–152 {{JSTOR|2138240}}
"GO Beyond GDP: Introducing a New National Income Statistic," (presented at the "Macro Lunch", Columbia Business School, paper to be submitted to American Economic Review)
"What Drives the Economy: Consumer Spending or Saving/Investment? Using GDP, Gross Output and Other National Income Statistics to Determine Economic Performance," Backgrounder, 2004, Initiative for Policy Dialogue,{{cite web|url=http://www-1.gsb.columbia.edu/ipd/j_gdp.html |title=IPD's Capacity Building and Journalism Program; Economic Journalism Training |access-date=August 24, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050206124146/http://www-1.gsb.columbia.edu/ipd/j_gdp.html |archive-date=February 6, 2005 }}
"Gross Domestic Expenditures (GDE): The Case for New National Aggregate Statistic", 2012, a working paper at University College of London {{cite web|url=http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/wp113.pdf |title=UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) |website=Ssees.ucl.ac.uk |date=2011-03-22 |access-date=2016-03-30}}

Articles in edited volumes

"The Great Depression," The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, ed. Peter J. Boettke. Hants, England: Edward Elgar, 1994
"Financial Economics," The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, ed. Peter J. Boettke. Hants, England: Edward Elgar, 1994
"Say's Law, Growth Theory, and Supply Side Economics," Two Hundred Years of Say's Law, ed. Steven Kates. Hants, England: Edward Elgar, 2003
{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter=Classical Economics |year=2008 |publisher= Sage; Cato Institute |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024| lccn = 2008009151 |pages=71–73 |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n47 }}
{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter=Ricardo, David (1772–1823) |year=2008 |publisher= Sage; Cato Institute |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024| lccn = 2008009151 |pages=433–434 |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n265 }}