A major influencer in the world of free-market economics and founder of the concept called Gross Output is the featured presenter of the Indiana University East School of Business and Economics Fall Speaker Series this October.

Mark Skousen will give two different lectures scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, and Thursday, October 27. Both talks are free and open to the public.

“The topics presented have a microeconomics focus and a macroeconomic focus,” said event organizer Feler Bose of IU East. He is an associate professor of economics and finance for the IU East School of Business and Economics.

Bose said will give his first campus lecture at 11 a.m. October 26 on the topic “What’s Better than Democratic Socialism? Democratic Capitalism!” in Vivian Hall, located in Whitewater Hall.

Skousen will deliver his keynote address on macro economics titled, “What Drives the Economy: Consumer Spending, Business Investment, or Government Stimulus?” at 12:30 p.m. October 27 in Whitewater Hall, Room 132.

The Fall Speaker Series is sponsored by the Charles Koch Foundation and co-sponsored by Delta Mu Delta, the IU East Center for Economic Education and the IU East Business and Economic Research Center.

Skousen, Ph.D., is an investment expert, university professor and author of more than 25 books – including The Big Three in Economics, Maxims of Wall Street and Investing in One Lesson.

His wide range of jobs and achievements include serving as editor-in-chief of the investment newsletter Forecasts & Strategies, writing columns for Forbes Magazine and being the former president of the non-profit Foundation for Economic Education.

He also has worked as an analyst for the CIA and led for-profit companies.

He runs the website mskousen.com and is the founder of the annual FreedomFest.

Bose said Skousen offers some interesting economic points to consider: “In the current macroeconomic climate of recession and uncertainty, I believe it would be interesting to see how his measure called Gross Output measures how the economy is doing.”

Skousen believes gross output is more comprehensive than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and was first introduced as a macroeconomic tool in his work The Structure of Production in 1990.

Gross Domestic Product measures the value of the final goods and services produced in the United States and has long been considered the most popular indicator of overall economic health.

“GDP leaves out the supply chain and business to business transactions in the production of intermediate inputs,” Skousen said in an article on his website. “That’s a big part of the economy, bigger than GDP itself. GO includes B2B activity that is vital to the production process. No one should ignore what is going on in the supply chain of the economy.”

Bose illustrates the concept of GO with the following measurement of a person’s health by his or her weight. “A 300-pound person only gives us some information,” Bose said. “That person could be overweight or a bodybuilder. Having other measures, say height with weight, would give a better understanding of a person’s health. For this reason, GO and GDP would be helpful to know.”

Skousen believes GO is “the missing piece in the macroeconomic puzzle.”

In acknowledgment of his concept, the federal government (the Bureau of Economic Analysis) began publishing gross output as the “top line” in national income accounting every quarter along with GDP (the “bottom line”).

His keynote talk will touch on the roles of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, savings and capital investment in growth, and why consumption and government depend on a vibrant business sector.

During the October 26 event, Skousen will begin his first lecture with a discussion on the appeal of socialism, especially to students, then will use economic tools to analyze the pros and cons of socialistic policies such as free college education and single-payer healthcare. He will then introduce an alternative model which involves the ‘stakeholder’ philosophy of ‘democratic capitalism,’ and give modern-day examples of its success.

Bose said many people don’t always understand what the terms socialist and capitalist mean in economic terms.

“For example, many say Nordic countries are socialist, but in fact they rank highly in the Economic Freedom of the World Index, indicating they are capitalist,” Bose said. “I am certainly interested in learning about his alternate way of looking at this topic … and how he applies it.”

The Fall Speaker Series is available to watch online at the IU East School of Business and Economics website at iue.edu/business/index.html.

For more information on the speaker series, contact Feler Bose, associate professor of economics and finance, at bosef@iu.edu.