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Acton on Tap: Matt Kibbe - The Perils of Political Cronyism

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Grand Rapids, MI

    Conventional wisdom holds that business and government are enemies, each trying to restrain the other’s power. In fact, businesses have always taken advantage of government authority to stifle competition and protect their own profits. The people who really lose under such an arrangement are consumers, taxpayers and start-up entrepreneurs. Crony capitalism—the opposite of free enterprise—empowers government-granted monopolies, props up inefficient and unprofitable companies with subsidies, and stifles new ideas and market innovation.

    Please join the Acton Institute and America's Future Foundation for a free lecture, networking, and one free drink on us! Doors will open at 6:00 PM and the lecture will start promptly at 6:30 PM followed by Q&A and discussion with the lecturer at 7:05 PM.

     

    Speaker

    Kibbe
    Matt Kibbe
    Free the People

    President

    Matt Kibbe is a leading advocate for personal, civil and economic liberties. An economist by training, Kibbe is a public policy expert, bestselling author and political commentator. He served as Senior Advisor to Concerned American Voters, a Rand Paul Super PAC. He is also Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Austrian Economic Center in Vienna, Austria. In 2004 Kibbe founded FreedomWorks, a national grassroots advocacy organization, and served as President until his departure in July 2015.

    Steve Forbes said “Kibbe has been to FreedomWorks what Steve Jobs was to Apple.” Newsweek pronounced Kibbe “one of the masterminds” of tea party politics. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann called Kibbe “the second worst person in the world.”

    Dubbed “the scribe” by the New York Daily News, Kibbe is the author of the #2 New York Times bestseller Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto (HarperCollins 2014), Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government's Stranglehold on America (HarperCollins 2012) and coauthor of Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto (HarperCollins 2010). Kibbe appears frequently on national television including FOX News, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, The Blaze TV and CSPAN.

    Before joining FreedomWorks, Kibbe served as a congressional Chief of Staff and House Budget Committee Associate. He was also Budget Director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Senior Economist for the RNC under Lee Atwater.

    Kibbe did graduate work in economics at George Mason University and received his B.A. in Economics from Grove City College. He lives in Washington, DC with his unspeakably awesome wife of 29 years, Terry, and their three liberty-minded cats, Roark, Ragnar and Iko. A noted scholarly expert on The Big Lebowski, Kibbe is also an avid DeadHead, drinker of beer and whisky, and collector of obscure books on libertarian philosophy.

    Event Details

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    Start Date

    Location

    New Holland: The Knickerbocker - Zeppelin Lounge
    417 Bridge St. NW
    Grand Rapids, MI 49504
    United States

    Schedule

    6:00 PM - Cocktail Hour
    6:30 PM - Lecture Begins
    7:05 PM - Q&A and Discussion

    Tickets

    Acton on Tap is a new series of complimentary events sponsored by the Acton Alumni Association.

    Co-sponsored by America's Future Foundation

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    Parking

    Beginning at 6:00 PM, free ​​street ​​parking ​​is ​​available. ​​There ​​are ​​also ​​paid ​​parking ​​lots ​​nearby. 

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