July 19, 2016

RALEIGH — Free trade has been hammered on the presidential campaign trail this year, but the John Locke Foundation will tout free trade’s benefits on Friday, July 29. That’s the day JLF will host a speech on trade in connection with the annual Friedman Legacy Day.

The noon event at the JLF office in Raleigh (200 West Morgan Street) will feature Scott Lincicome, an international trade attorney, visiting lecturer at Duke University, and adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute. His cover story in the April 11 edition of the conservative publication National Review detailed “The Truth About Trade.”

Lincicome will address the topic “U.S. Trade Policy Desperately Needs a Dose of Milton Friedman.”

Friedman was a Nobel Prize-winning economist known for sharing free-market principles widely with the public through venues such as a long-running Newsweek column and the “Free to Choose” television series.

The July 29 speech will remind the JLF audience about Friedman’s lifelong work to fight free-trade myths spread by politicians, pundits, and even some businesspeople.

“These lost souls could stand to recall the work of Milton Friedman, who sold free trade not through boring data and mercantilism, but through an entertaining mix of reason and morality — the very things that first attracted me to the field,” Lincicome said. “Until free-trade proponents once again embrace these basic concepts, the protectionists of the world will keep winning, thus ensuring less freedom and a lower standard of living for us all.”

Friedman died in 2006, but the legacy of Friedman and his wife, fellow economist Rose D. Friedman, lives on in the annual Friedman Legacy Day. It’s commemorated each year in conjunction with Milton Friedman’s birthday. Friedman would have turned 104 this year.

In 2015 JLF joined the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and dozens of other groups in conducting more than 90 Friedman Legacy Day gatherings in 15 countries, 45 states, and the District of Columbia.

“We are honored to participate again this year in a day honoring Milton Friedman’s critical role in spreading the word about the economic and social benefits of free markets,” said Kory Swanson, JLF president and CEO. “At a time when free trade faces political challenges from leading figures in both major political parties, it’s good to remind North Carolinians and Americans in general about the long-term positive legacy of reducing barriers to trade and encouraging peaceful, mutually beneficial interaction among consumers and producers around the globe.”

Admission to the July 29 JLF Friedman Legacy Day speech is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact Mitch Kokai at (919) 306-8736 or [email protected].