Lord Acton Chair 2020/2021
In line with the North American Academic Calendar, the 2021 Lord Acton Chair, moderated and organized Alex Chafuen, international managing director of Acton Institute United States, was inaugurated in October 2020 and was held in six editions from that month until April 2021.
The opening session of this space was led by the Spanish economist Daniel Lacalle, who spoke about “An overview of the economy in Europe and in the World
Lacalle began speaking about world economy in a context previous to Covid 19. He considered that “many governments use the Covid 19 as an excuse to cover structural problems that existed before… European leadership policies from the European Union have been oriented to perpetuate the excesses of public spending at any cost, taking advantage of an ultra expansive monetary policy”, Lacalle commented
In November, the protagonists of the Lord Acton Chair were Michael Miller (Acton Institute) and Anthony Kim (Heritage Foundation), who spoke about "The Road to and Away from Poverty: The Fatal Attraction of Socialism". The dissertation was in English.
December had the participation of Father Martin Rhonheimer, from Vienna, who spoke of “La Filosofía Política, la Etica y su desafío a la economía libre” (Political Philosophy, Ethics and its challenge to the free economy) together with Mario Silar.
Returning after the Argentine summer recess, the Lord Acton Chair of February had Professor Jesús Fernández-Villaverde as protagonist, and he spoke about “Estado de Derecho y Regulacion: Libertad Económica y Coordinación” (Rule of Law and Regulation: Economic Freedom and Coordination), a hot issue in the context of the pandemic.
In March, the Chair had a luxury team of economists and politologists to analyze the Latin American situation: Geanluca Lorenzón, Francisco de Santibañes, Angel Soto and Ignacio Munyo. They gave a complete analysis of the situation in the region.
In April, at the close of the first cycle of the Lord Acton Chair, the session will be headed by Father Sirico, who will be the protagonist of the activity on April 27.
All the sessions of the Lord Acton Chair were moderated by Alejandro Chafuen
Daniel Lacalle is Ph.D. in Economics, professor of Global Economy and Finance, besides being an investment funds manager. Married and with three children, he resides in London. He is Chief Economist at Tressis Sociedad de Valores, Co-Manager of the Adriza Global Fund, Member of the Advisory Council of the Rafael del Pino Foundation, Professor at the Instituto de Empresa (IE), President of the Instituto Mises Hispano, Professor at the Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles (IEB) and UNED and he formed part of the TOP8 of the most influential economists in the world 2016, 17, 18 and 19 Richtopia ranking. His most recent book is "Libertad o Igualdad" published in 2020. He also wrote “Nosotros, los Mercados” (Deusto, 2013); “Viaje a la Libertad Económica” (Deusto, 2013); “La Madre de Todas las Batallas” (Deusto, 2014, together with Diego Parrilla); “Hablando se Entiende la Gente” (with Juan Torres and Emilio Ontiveros, Deusto); “Acabemos con el Paro” (Deusto).
Michael Matheson Miller is Researcher and Director of the Acton Media in Acton Institute. With 10 years of international experience, Michael has lived in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He is a lecturer on moral philosophy, economic development and entrepreneurship. He publishes his articles in The Washington Times, The Detroit News, L.A. Daily News and Real Clear Politics. He is director and host in the Poverty Cure DVD Series. Much of his present work at Acton is related to promoting entrepreneurship solutions to solve poverty. Michael received his degree from the University of Notre Dame and holds master´s degrees from the Nagoya University’s Graduate School of International Development (Japan), from the Franciscan University and the Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Business.
Anthony Kim is head of research and editor of Index of Economic Freedom of Heritage, prior to which he was chief of staff for Edwin J. Feulner, founder of the Heritage Foundation. With a focus on policies related to freedom, entrepreneurship, and investment, Kim investigates international economic issues. As an editor, Kim also manages the production of the internationally prestigious Heritage Index of Economic Freedom. Kim is a graduate of the Rutgers University and holds a Master in international commerce from Elliott School of International Affairs of the George Washington University.
Mario Silar is a writer, Associate Professor of the University of Navarra, senior researcher of the Acton Institute Argentina
Martin Rhonheimer is professor of political philosophy and priest of the Opus Dei. Since July 2017, he is a teaching professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He studied philosophy, history, political sciences and theology in Zurich and in Rome.
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde is Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and member of the NBER and CEPR. He has been Visiting Professor of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge universities among various others and member of the editorial board of leading academic journals. He does research on issues of fiscal and monetary policy and economic history and has actively participated in the debate on economic policy in Spain and the United States since 2008. His website is www.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/ and his YouTube channel is: Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde.
Geanluca Lorenzón is Secretary of Defense of Competition and of Competitiveness (SEAE) of the Ministry of Economy of Brazil. Lawyer from Federal University of Santa Maria. He studied Business Management at Georgetown. Scholarship from Naumann Foundation. Former consultant for McKinsey & Company. Former CEO Mises Institute Brazil. Former coordinator of Students for Liberty.
Francisco de Santibañes is Vice President of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI). He is also author lf the books La Argentina y el Mundo (Edicon, 2016), La Rebelión de las Naciones (Vértice de Ideas, 2019) and La Argentina después de la Tormenta (Vértice de Ideas, 2021). He has written in specialized journals among which are Survival, Armed Forces and Society and Comparative Strategy, and he teaches in the Master in Public Policy at the Austral University. He has given presentations at Chatham House, Johns Hopkins University, Wilson Center, the ISEN, Institut Français des Relations Internationales (Ifri) and the German Council for Foreign Policy among other institutions. He is Global Fellow of the Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington DC, a columnist for Infobae and member of the board of directors of the company Havanna S.A.
Angel Soto is a Doctor in History; Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Master in Political Science and Bachellor in History, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He is a graduate from CHDS, National Defense University, USA and a diploma in Critical Thinking, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, USA. He is currently completing the Senior MBA at ESE Business School of the University of the Andes, Chile.
Ignacio Munyo, who is Doctor in Economics from the University of San Andres and Master in Economics from University of Chicago. Executive Director of CERES since June 2020. Dr. Munyo is Professor of Economics at the University of Montevideo: Professor of the courses of “Economics”, “Context Management” and “Business Government and the Economy”, in the framework of the executive training programs of the IEEM School of Business. Professor at INALDE Business School (Colombia), IDE Business School (Ecuador) and ISE Business School (Brazil). Munyo is a Member of the National Academy of Economics. He is also member of the board of the Society of Economists of Uruguay and of the Montevideo Stock Exchange. He was research assistant at the University of Chicago of Raghuran Rajan. He writes columns for El País, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg, Financial Times, CNN, BBC, Thomson Reuters, Infobae of Argentina, etc.
Alejandro Chafuen, managing director international of Acton USA. Chafuen has an outstanding career in the world of ideas, having served as CEO and President Atlas Network from 1991 to 2018. He is president and founder of the Hispanic American Center of Economic Research; columnist of Forbes; member of the board of directors of the Fraser Institute, of Canada, member of the Mont Pelerin Society since 1980, and president of the Philadelphia Society (2017-2018). He is recognized worldwide for his studies on economic thought of the Thomists and the Scholastics. He is a graduate of Grove City College and UCA, has a Ph.D. in Economics from the International College of California.