Scott S. Powell

Senior Fellow, Center on Wealth, Poverty, and Morality

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

Labor Day: Celebrating the Vision of Human Flourishing

For most people, Labor Day is a rather vague holiday without the clarity and meaning typically associated with other holidays. Yet in its most complete context, Labor Day should be recognized as the holiday that celebrates not only labor, but also the ideas, job creators, and institutions central to the flourishing of the United States and its people.

Celebrating July Fourth Rings Hollow Without Fidelity To America’s Founding Ideals

Let’s make this July Fourth a day of celebration of our founding ideals and a time of renewed commitment to engage and wake up our nation.
We know it’s time to resist creeping tyranny and reclaim precious possessions — our freedoms and rights. It’s time to become active in the patriot cause, knowing that — just as the sun comes up in the east — persistence, courage, and the truth of our cause are the shield and sword that assure victory.   

This Memorial Day, Remember The Courage And Forgiveness That Made America Great

When Americans sacrificed their lives in military service, it was not just to defend the United States but to uphold the natural rights associated with the nation’s founding.
If the last few generations of Americans understood the origin and meaning of Memorial Day, we might have avoided the trauma of division and corruption that now threatens the United States as never before.  

The Final Chinafication of the United States

Even if the United States wanted to wean itself from China for national security reasons it would remain dependent on key minerals for its energy and transportation systems, and this time the dependency will be with one country—China. As the Institute for Energy Research reports, the advancement of the Green New Deal will mean further ‘Chinafication’ of the U.S.