Scott S. Powell

Senior Fellow, Center on Wealth and Poverty

Scott Powell has enjoyed a career split between theory and practice with over 25 years of experience as a founder, entrepreneur and leader in several industries. He joins the Discovery Institute after having been a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution for six years and serving as a managing partner at a consulting firm, RemingtonRand. His research and writing has resulted in over 250 published articles on economics, business and regulation in the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Barron’s Financial, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Philadelphia Inquirer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Diego Union, Houston Post and some two dozen other newspapers and journals in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

He authored the Hoover monograph, The Entrepreneur as the Mainspring of Economic Growth, which explains why the state cannot perform the entrepreneurial function, and he produced an in-depth critique of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, published in Barron’s Financial and the Hoover Digest.

Scott’s book, Covert Cadre, largely written while being associated with the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, documented the activities of key figures and institutions of the American left, and was hailed by National Review as one of the most important books of the 1988 election year. The chapter entitled "Blinding America" explains in detail the political and media active measures campaigns that the left pursued in the 1970s to "reform" and undermine the U.S. intelligence agencies. Years later these structural reforms contributed to the systemic failures that led to the 9/11 tragedy. Powell has been called on to provide expert witness analysis and testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. His public speaking has brought him in contact with radio and TV audiences throughout the U.S.

Scott Powell graduated from the University of Chicago with honors (B.A. and M.A.) and received his Ph.D. in political and economic theory from Boston University in 1987, writing his dissertation on the determinants of entrepreneurial activity and economic growth.  He currently teaches international economics in graduate school program in Global Development at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Archives

Washington And Lincoln Wouldn’t Recognize America Today

These great American presidents were willing to give their lives to establish a new nation. We are called to do no less to save this country.
America is being assaulted on many more fronts than at the time of the American War of Independence. Our challenge today is one of commitment. The founders were willing to give their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish independence and create a new nation. We are called to do no less to save this country.

Can Florida Halt the Woke Revolution?

With the 2024 Florida legislative session being at its mid-point, Tallahassee still has a shot at passing solid historic preservation legislation that stops a key part of the Marxist cultural revolution in its tracks. Doing so will demonstrate real leadership by Florida and provide a role model for other states to follow. Doing nothing facilitates the continuation of the slow suicide of America.

Averting Insolvency Is a Key Battle America Must Win

With all the problems America is facing, the one that gets the least attention might be the most critical. The speed at which the United States will hit the wall of an insolvency crisis and collapse is approaching very fast.  The U.S. is currently spending more than $2 billion a day to service its debt, and that interest we pay on servicing the national debt is the fastest growing part of the federal budget. It will likely exceed the entire defense budget within a year. The constructive law of compound interest has been turned upside-down and we are now on a downward spiral of escalating compound debt and interest payments, wherein the U.S. government is locked into borrowing ever more money to pay the interest on new and previous debt obligations.  In the context of our

Martin Luther King Jr.: More Relevant Than Ever

There is much to learn from and reflect on in the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
Few American leaders have remained as clearheaded about the dangers of groupthink as King. He reminds us of Emerson’s words: “Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.” And drawing on Apostle Paul’s teachings, King implored that, “Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave.”

How Christmas Split Time in Two While Also Making Life Timeless

We are at a crisis inflection point in our present and future. And while evil encircles us on every side and at every level, the Christmas story has the power and truth to deliver peace while also providing the shield and sword to defeat those who would destroy our families, our freedom, our nation, and all that is good.

Who Would Destroy the Reconciliation Monument at This Time of Year?

t is a sad chapter in American history when the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, takes naked action that is an affront to Congress and the separation of powers by running roughshod over Amendment 364 of the Fiscal Year 2024 Department of Defense Appropriations bill that prohibits the use of funds for the removal of any monument in Arlington National Cemetery. 

Removing Monuments Becoming Last Straw for Americans

It's a sign of our times that the most impressive and meaningful monument known as the Reconciliation Monument, located in Arlington Cemetery (in Arlington, Virginia): hallowed and sacred ground in America, has been scheduled to be removed on Dec. 18.

The New World Order

The Road to Serfdom and Tyranny
While it is true that America’s light to the world has grown dim because of infiltration from without and corruption from within, the U.S. Constitution still stands.

Threats to the United States now at a Whole New Level

It turns out that nations do not stumble into wars and conflict. Wars are generally the result of globalist forces with ulterior motives or political leaders who seek to shore up and protect their political position by demonizing a target, like Russia, and then rallying the people’s support around the enemy of that target, like Ukraine, in the name of patriotism and American interests.

Weakness and Underestimating Enemies Invites War

The talk about whether the United States could prevail in a two-front war—against Russia in the European theater to defend Ukraine and against China in the Pacific theater to defend Taiwan—has suddenly been eclipsed.