Geopolitics and the current economy, key issues of the Mont Pelerin Society 2021

On 15, 16 and 17 November, the Centre for Studies, Training and Social Analysis (CEFAS), represented by its academic secretary Mr Fernando Nistal, was invited to the Mont Pelerin Society 2021, held at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala, as part of the celebrations commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the university.

For three days, numerous international experts in economics, history, philosophy and politics, as well as representatives of the world’s leading liberal-conservative think tanks, discussed and proposed from different points of view how to deal with the current geopolitical and economic situation, with the COVID-19 pandemic as a background theme in many of the lectures. This year’s speakers included Mr Edwin J. Feulner, founder of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation; Mr Alberto Mingardi, Director of the Bruno Leoni Institute; Mr Samuel Gregg, Director of Research at the Acton Institute; Mr Jerry L. Jordan, Senior Research Fellow at the Fraser Institute; Mr Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, Minister of Finance of the Madrid Regional Government; and Mr Fernando Ulrich, member of the Mises Institute and one of Brazil’s most influential economists.

The Mont Pelerin Society was founded in 1947 by 36 economists, historians and philosophers invited by Mr Friedrich A. Hayek. Its purpose was to promote the exchange of ideas among scholars who shared similar values, in the hope of strengthening the principles and practice of a society of free people, and to study the facts, virtues and defects of free-market economic systems. Eight Nobel Prize winners have been members of the Society, including Mr Hayek himself, Mr Milton Friedman, Mr James Buchanan and Mr Vernon L. Smith. A further meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society is scheduled for October 2022 in the Norwegian city of Oslo.