Fred L. Smith

Fred L. Smith, Jr. is the President and Founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit libertarian think tank. [ [http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/7847.htm Competitive Enterprise Institute, Advancing liberty - from the economy to ecology] ] . He is a prominent writer and commentator on such controversial topics as antitrust law, environmental regulation, and the economic impacts of global warming.

Smith has served as an NGO delegate to international environmental conferences such as the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the UNFCCC third Conference of the Parties in Kyoto, Japan. He was a as director for the Council for a Competitive Economy and sits on the Institute Turgot in Belgium [ [http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_expert.cfm?expert=32 Fred L. Smith, Jr. Biography] ] .

Smith appeared on Crossfire in 2006 and stated that global warming resulting from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide might be "a good thing because of all the cool new crops we could grow." [ [http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/5/17/15336/5459 The CEI ads] ] [ [http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/17/global-warming-looks-good/ CEI Founder on Global Warming: ‘It Looks Pretty Good…We’re Moving To A More Benign Planet.’] ] . Smith defended contributions of companies such as ExxonMobil to groups skeptical of climate change, explaining that support for such organizations can be expected to rise as public interest in global warming issues increases, saying, "Firefighters' budgets go up when fires go up." [ [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=ExxonFundsGlobalWarmingSkeptics9895#ExxonFundsGlobalWarmingSkeptics9895 Context of 'Between 1998 and 2005: ExxonMobil Grants $16 Million to Global Warming Skeptic Organizations'] ]

In 2003, Smith lobbied the Secretary of the Treasury against a proposal that would require banks to report interest earned by non-resident aliens [ [http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/ltr/cei-irs/cei-irs.shtml CEI's Fred L. Smith's letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, September 26, 2003] ] . Smith argued that foreign investors' willingness to invest in the United States depends on how they are treated by financial regulators.

Smith is married to Frances B. Smith, an adjunct scholar at CEI who also serves on its board of directors. [http://politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=4114&name=Fred-Smith-Jr Fred Smith Jr.]

References

External links

* [http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_Expert.cfm?Expert=32 Official biography] from the Competitive Enterprise Institute