Speaker Biographies

Christopher DeMuth has been president of AEI since 1986. He was previously managing director of Lexecon Inc., an economics consulting firm; editor and publisher of Regulation magazine; administrator for regulatory affairs at the Office of Management and Budget; executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief in the Ronald Reagan administration; lecturer and director of regulatory studies at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; an attorney with the Consolidated Rail Corporation and the law firm of Sidley & Austin; and staff assistant to President Richard Nixon. He is a director of the State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Companies and two family companies. Mr. DeMuth's essays have appeared in The American Enterprise, Harvard Law Review, Yale Journal of Regulation, the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and other publications, and are posted at www.chrisdemuth.com.

Charles Murray is the W.H. Brady Scholar in Culture and Freedom at AEI. He first came to national attention in 1984 with the publication of Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980. This was followed in 1988 by In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, in 1994 by The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (with Richard J. Herrnstein), in 1997 by What It Means to be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation, and in 2003 by Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. His newest book is In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (AEI Press, 2006). Mr. Murray has been affiliated with AEI since 1990. He was born and raised in Newton, Iowa.

Jonathan Rauch, a senior writer and columnist for National Journal magazine and a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, is the author of several books and many articles on public policy, culture, and economics. He is also a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. His books include Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America (2004); Government’s End: Why Washington Stopped Working (2000); Demosclerosis (1994); Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (1993); and The Outnation: A Search for the Soul of Japan (1992). His articles also appear regularly in The Atlantic. Among the many other publications for which he has written are The New Republic, The Economist, Reason, Harper’s, Fortune, Reader’s Digest, U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, Slate, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2005 he received the National Magazine Award for columns and commentary.

View Event Details