09 22 25 MSU Economics Professor Dr Alex Padilla on Steve Forbes lecture tomorrow

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's morning news. At a time when economic
policy is dominating the news, MSU Denver is giving an
opportunity for students to hear from one of America's most
recognized voices on free enterprise.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Chairman and editor in chief of Forbes Magazine, Steve Forbes
will be speaking on campus at MSU Denver tomorrow as
part of the school's Exploring Economic Freedom lecture series and
joining us now on the QA Common Spirit Health Hotline
is MSU Denver Professor and Chair of Economics. It's doctor
Alex Padia. Doctor Padia, thank you so much for your
time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Tell us a little bit more about the MSU Denver
Economic Freedom Lecture series and just the overall goal of
having these chats with students.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, so the project was I created the project in
two thousand nine and the main goal is to expose
to your students to defround views and to explore our
economic and political freedom, promote entrepreneurship, economic development for sperity
and peace. And we do that for a speaker series

(01:01):
and reading and discussion colloquia and civil dialogue and open dialog.
What we want is for students to see different perspective.
We very much embrace what we call pluralism of ideas.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Doctor How many of the young people there are familiar
with somebody like Steve Forbes. I mean he's somebody more
of my generation. Of course, the Forbes legacy Forbes magazine
that are young people, they will be aware of them.
But are they aware of them before he comes in.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I think most of our students that take it on
class as a business major, so they are certainly exposed
to the idea of business entreprenurship, and they probably know
the Forbes magazine and the Forbes website. I'm not sure
they know who is mister Forbes. Per se Right is

(01:50):
almost eighty years old now and ran for presidents in
twenty nineteen, ninety six and two thousand. But I think,
as you mention, people who are previous generation might be
more aware of just for them students, so it's important
to expose them to entrepreneurs and business people that have

(02:11):
been doing that for a very very long time.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
What are some of the topics you hope Steve Forbes
covers tomorrow. What are some of the biggest things that
are top of mind for ms You Denver students.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
I think a lot of students are wandering way the
free trade or tariffs are going to help them get jobs.
Government regulation, almost government regulation. Do we actually need or
al much government regulation hinder business creation and business growth?

(02:47):
There certainly will be a questions about taxation. I think
we live in a current world where people are very
worried about incoming equality, and we see incoming equality taxation
as a mechanism to mitigate income inequality. And they do
not necessarily understand that we don't live in a world

(03:08):
of unicorns, and therefore everything is about trade offs and
they are incentives, costs, and benefits. And I think mister
folks will talk about this and what could be the
impact of too much regulation and too much taxation on
free enterprise, business creation, innovation.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Even though I know there's data to back up some
economic philosophies, Doctor, doesn't this get down to the old saying,
which I'm sure you're familiar with. Economics is actually more
art than science, And having a discussion like this really
reveals that with somebody who may have a little different
philosophical economic understandings or knowledge or philosophy than say somebody
else does.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well it's a little bit complicated, and I agree that
this continuous debate about whether economics is a notchwards science.
But do still do artical models and we test those
models like science does. So we have assumption models and
we test those models and the empirical data trying to

(04:09):
support or not support some of those models. When it
comes to students, I think we should be a little
bit more, you know, talk to people that don't necessarily
have a training of an economist and explain, if you
believe this, what do you think will appart if we

(04:30):
do this or that. So, for example, it's not because
something sounds good that is not necessarily going to work. Right.
We talk about social desirability bias. People support policies because
they sound good on paper and they sound good to us,
but that doesn't mean they work, and they don't have
any costs, they don't have any trade offs or with

(04:51):
their own generate incentives that are perceived but alsociety as
negative incentives.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Steve Forbes will be speaking on campus at MSU Denver
tomorrow from twelve thirty to one forty five. You can
find more information on MSU Denver's website. MSU Denver Professor
and Chair of Economics at Doctor Alex Padia. Thank you
so much for your time this morning.