The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism

EVENTS

"Leadership and Values"

John A. Allison, IV, chairman and former CEO of BB&T Corp., delivered the Fall 2009 John W. Pope Lecture.

Allison joined BB&T in 1971 and has held a variety of responsibilities. He became president of BB&T in 1987 and was elected chairman and CEO in 1989. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971 and an MBA from Duke University in 1974. He graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University in 1981. He has received honorary doctorates from East Carolina University (1995), Mount Olive College (2002), Clemson University (2005), and Marymount University (2008).

BB&T Corp., headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., is one of the fastest growing banking companies in the Southeast, with more than $130 billion in assets. It is the fourteenth largest financial holding company in the nation and its bank subsidiaries operate more than 1,500 branch offices in the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Florida and Washington, D.C.

Allison is a member of the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Bretton Woods Committee. He is on the board of advisors of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, the board of trustees of Appalachian State University, and the boards of visitors of Wake Forest University's Baptist Medical Center, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC.

Allison's lecture will address the genesis and implementation of his BB&T Values program at the company. He will explore how today's confusion about values has led to poor leadership and how an integrated vision of values can help develop better leaders as well as serve as a practical means to achieve success and happiness.

Click here to watch a video of the event.

"TOCQUEVILLE'S AMERICAN VIRTUE"

Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, delivered the Fall 2008 John W. Pope Lecture Series.

What is "self-interest well understood," the virtue Tocqueville finds that Americans claim for themselves? Can all good motives be reduce to self-interest? What prevents Americans from being selfish? How do they sustain their political liberty?

Dr. Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has written works on Edmund Burke, Machiavelli, and American Constitutional government. He has also translated three books of Machiavelli and (with Delba Winthrop) Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships, has won numerous awards for his teaching, and in 2004 accepted a National Humanities Medal from the President.

Click here to watch a video of the event.

"THE MORAL AND ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF CAPITALISM: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?"

World-renowned University of Chicago law professor, Richard A. Epstein, delivered the Spring 2008 lecture in the John W. Pope Lecture Series.

Is capitalism good because it’s the moral and just social system or because it’s the most economically productive and efficient system? Is there any connection between the moral foundations of capitalism and its economic basis? In this lecture, Professor Richard Epstein questions whether separating the moral and economic aspects of capitalism is either useful or justified. Moral evaluation of the market system is rooted in the idea that individuals ought to keep their promises. But is that all? Do these ethical obligations to follow through on voluntary transactions end the discussion of morality in a capitalist system? Prof. Epstein will explain how these moral and ethical ideals ought to be understood in relation to the economic aspects of a capitalist system. By investigating examples from antitrust law, telecommunications, and intellectual property, Epstein will illustrate the intimate connection between the moral and economic foundations of a capitalist system.

Richard A. Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and is the Director of the Law and Economics Program. Epstein is the author of over a dozen books and hundreds of articles on a diverse array of topics including antitrust law, property rights, intellectual property, medical ethics, eminent domain, tort law, contracts, legal theory, constitutional history, and many more.

Click here to watch a video of the event.

"WHY AMERICA WANTS TO PROMOTE DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD"

1993 Pulitzer Prize for History winner Gordon S. Wood, delivered the inaugural lecturer in the John William Pope Lecture Series.

America was born as a republic in the world filled with monarchies. It immediately felt a need to promote the spread of republicanism (or what we today call democracy) throughout the world not only out of self-interest but out of the belief of most of its citizens that a republican form of government based on the rule by the people was the only just polity. This led to America's emotional and diplomatic support for revolutionary movements throughout the Western world during the nineteenth century, a support that was brought to an abrupt end by the Soviet takeover of the Russian revolution in 1917. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 presumably changed everything, but in the past two decades America has had difficulty finding its proper role in the world. Gordon Wood is currently the Alva O. Way University Professor at Brown University.

Click here to watch a video of the event.

"WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION?"

Stephen Moore , Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal

What is the state of the American political Right in 2007? What happened to the idea of limited-government conservatism? Have conservatives been corrupted by power, or is there something in their basic philosophy that has led them to embrace big government? Is there any meaningful difference today between liberals and conservatives?

When: Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Time: 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.

Where: 364 Sirrine Hall

This event is free and open to the public. A pizza lunch will be served starting at 12:30 and the lecture will begin promptly at 1:00.

"THE IRRESPONSIBILITY OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY"

Fred Smith, President, The Competitive Enterprise Institute

Mr. Smith will argue that the movement for corporate social responsibility is an irresponsible and an immoral response to the political vulnerability of the modern corporation to various ideological and political attacks. Smith will argue that corporate social responsibility, by creating a multiplicity of confusing objectives, threatens to divert the firm from its basic role of wealth creation. To weaken that role by assigning to the corporation the burden of resolving environmental, racial and religious, gender problems - is to make the world a less moral place.

When: Thursday, December 7th,

Time: 11:45 to 1:00 p.m.

Where: 364 Sirrine Hall

This event is free and open to the public. A pizza lunch will be served starting at 11:45 and the lecture will begin promptly at 12:00.

"WHY CONSERVATIVES ARE ANTI-BUSINESS"
Dr. Yaron Brook
Executive Director, The Ayn Rand Institute

Conservatives often present themselves as “pro-business” and “pro-free market”—i.e., in favor of an economic system that enables productive businessmen to flourish. Yet, in reality, Dr. Yaron Brook observes, conservatives support many anti-business policies, from antitrust prosecution to "windfall" taxes on profits—policies that hurt this nation's most innovative and successful businessmen.

Date: Wednesday, February 8
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Location: Sirrine 364

Free pizza and beverages for the first 30 people!

SPONSORED BY THE CLEMSON INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF CAPITALISM

PRIVATE PROPERTY VS. PUBLIC GOOD?

Invitation/Announcement:

Are private property rights absolute or should government have the authority to take private property in the name of the public good?

Was the Supreme Court's recent ruling in the Kelo case properly decided? The case arose from a city's use of eminent domain to condemn privately owned property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan to stimulate economic development in the city.

The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, the Robert J. Rutland Center for Ethics, and the Spiro Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership are pleased to announce that they will be co-sponsoring a public forum on the issue of property rights and eminent domain. Faculty and students are invited to attend.

Participants:

John Echeverria, Executive Director, Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute, Georgetown University Law Center.
Bert Gall, staff attorney, The Institute for Justice, Washington, D.C.

Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Auditorium, Strom Thurmond Institute

For more information: www.clemson.edu/caah/rutland