Mark Skousen Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes
OverviewMark Skousen is an American economist, financial writer, and educator whose career bridges academic research, popular investment writing, and public outreach. Known for his advocacy of free-market ideas and for building institutions that connect scholars, investors, and policy makers, he has combined scholarship with entrepreneurship and event organizing. His work often draws on both the Austrian and Chicago traditions in economics while seeking practical applications for investors and business leaders.
Early Life and Education
Raised in the United States in a family engaged with public affairs and ideas, he grew up around debates about economics and liberty. His intellectual formation was shaped by exposure to classical liberal thinkers and by the example of his uncle, W. Cleon Skousen, a prominent writer on history and politics. Mark Skousen pursued formal training in economics and earned a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University, grounding his later applied work in rigorous theory and quantitative analysis.
Career in Finance and Publishing
Skousen came to public attention through his investment newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies, which he began editing in 1980. Blending macroeconomic perspective with market commentary, the newsletter developed a wide readership among individual investors. He went on to write numerous books on investing and personal finance, distilling complex concepts into accessible principles for a general audience. Throughout, he maintained a distinctive voice: optimistic about enterprise, wary of government overreach, and attentive to incentives and institutional change.
Scholarship and Ideas
In academic economics, Skousen is best known for The Structure of Production, a work that revived interest in measuring the economy across all stages of production, not just final output. Building on insights associated with Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek, as well as supply-side and Chicago-school perspectives, he argued for a top-line macro measure that captures business-to-business activity in addition to consumer spending. He promoted Gross Output (GO) as a complement to GDP, and his campaign contributed to a broader conversation that culminated in the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis beginning regular publication of GO in 2014. He has also authored The Making of Modern Economics, a narrative history of economic thought, and Economic Logic, a textbook that integrates micro, macro, finance, and business applications into a single analytical framework. His book Vienna and Chicago, Friends or Foes? explores the convergences and tensions between two major schools of market economics, tying together the work of Milton Friedman, Hayek, and their followers.
Teaching and Academic Posts
Committed to classroom teaching, Skousen has taught economics and finance at several universities, including appointments at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics. At Chapman, home to scholars such as Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith and led for many years by economist James Doti, he contributed courses and lectures on free enterprise, macroeconomic measurement, and the history of economic thought. Earlier in his career he taught courses at Columbia University and Rollins College, bringing his market-oriented perspective and policy experience into academic settings.
Institution Building and Public Engagement
Skousen served as president of the Foundation for Economic Education in the early 2000s, helping shepherd its flagship publication, The Freeman, and expanding outreach to students and young professionals. He is also the founder of FreedomFest, the annual festival of ideas that began in 2007 and has become a major gathering for classical liberals, investors, policymakers, and journalists. He built FreedomFest with his wife and collaborator, Jo Ann Skousen, who founded and directs the Anthem Film Festival held during the event. FreedomFest has hosted a wide array of figures, including Steve Forbes, Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey, George Gilder, and Arthur Laffer, reflecting Skousen's goal of fostering civil, big-tent debates on economics, politics, culture, and entrepreneurship.
Writing Style and Influence
Across his books, columns, and newsletters, Skousen writes with a didactic clarity aimed at practitioners as much as theorists. He emphasizes long-term wealth building, the rule of law, sound money, and the entrepreneurial discovery process. His histories of economics highlight the personalities and controversies behind major ideas, bringing Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Friedman, Hayek, and others into a cohesive narrative. In policy circles, his advocacy of GO and attention to the supply-side structure of the economy have broadened discussion beyond demand-focused indicators.
Personal and Professional Network
The people around Skousen have shaped both his ideas and his platforms. Jo Ann Skousen has been central to his public endeavors, especially FreedomFest and its film program. His familial connection to W. Cleon Skousen introduced him early to debates about liberty and civic life. In the broader classical-liberal community, he has interacted with business leaders and editors like Steve Forbes and John Mackey at conferences and editorial projects, and has worked in proximity to educators such as Lawrence W. Reed at FEE. In academic life at Chapman, he has operated within an ecosystem that includes James Doti and Vernon L. Smith, reinforcing his commitment to empirical work, market process, and educational outreach.
Legacy
Mark Skousen's legacy lies in the unusual combination of roles he has sustained: academic economist, market commentator, teacher, and convener of a wide-ranging intellectual community. By championing measures like Gross Output, writing accessible histories and texts, and building institutions that connect scholars to practitioners, he has sought to make economics both more complete in scope and more useful in practice. His work underscores the importance of entrepreneurship and the production structure in understanding prosperity, while his events and publications have created forums where people with differing views can test ideas in open debate.
Our collection contains 3 quotes who is written by Mark, under the main topics: Leadership - Freedom - Peace.