Upcoming Speaker

David Brinkman

Upcoming Speaker

Welcome to The Columbia Economics Club

Upcoming Speaker

David Brinkman, Historian

Topic:  Buried Treasure on the Broad River

Date:  Wednesday, April 8, 12:00 pm

David Brinkman was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina but has spent most of his life in Columbia, SC. He graduated from Irmo High School and the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering. For over 25 years, he has worked as a software engineer for NCR, AT&T, and Intel Corporations.

David never had an interest in history until 1997 when, after losing his father, he began a labor of love to represent and honor his father’s military service in his dad’s WWII reunion group. It was through this that David caught the history bug. In 2005, the discovery of an old bridge abutment in his new backyard on the Broad River started a series of local history projects from Columbia to Charleston.

Speaker

Romina Boccia

Speaker

Romina Boccia, Director of Federal Budget and Entitlement Policy, Cato Institute

Topic:  Defusing the US Debt Crisis

Date:  Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Romina Boccia is director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, where she specializes in federal spending, budget process, economic implications of rising debt, and Social Security and Medicare reform.  She also writes The Debt Dispatch on Substack.

Boccia advises presidential administrations and the Congress on US federal fiscal policy and Social Security reform. She’s best known for being ‘an economist who speaks English’ and for promoting a fiscal commission modeled after the Base Realignment and Closure process. She’s co-author of the edited volume A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the US Federal Debt Crisis and is currently working on a new book to publish in 2025, titled Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes.

 

Speaker

Shane David Hall

Upcoming Speaker

Shane David Hall, Director, High Profile Division, The Fine Art Group

Topic: Art as an Asset

Date:  Wednesday November 12, 2025

Shane David Hall represents The Fine Art Group as Director of their High-Profile Client Division where he serves as the firm’s primary point of contact for celebrity entertainers, musicians, and professional athletes as well as their support teams including business managers, wealth managers, accountants, attorneys, and family offices. Shane and his team adhere to strict security protocols, which adds levels of privacy and discretion to The Fine Art Group’s industry-leading fine art and collectibles management approach including appraisal, advisory, sales/agency, and bespoke financial services.

Shane holds over 15 years of extensive art market experience and 7 years of appraisal and advisory experience dedicated to managing investment-quality collectible assets for sports and entertainment industry personalities. Shane earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Historic Preservation and Art History from the College of Charleston (Charleston, SC) and later received a Master of Arts in American Fine and Decorative Arts from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (New York, NY). Shane began his career as a Curatorial Assistant at the Historic Charleston Foundation and interned with the prestigious Winter Show prior to working with three international auction houses. Shane holds deep knowledge of the global art market and is a nationally sought-after speaker, having lectured at the annual Trusted Advisor Summit, the premier leadership organization for celebrity client advisors, the North Carolina conference for Certified Financial Advisors as well as various collector groups nationally. Shane has also valued art and collectibles for Fortune 500 corporations, museums, and private collectors around the world.

Shane serves on the National Advisory Committee for Trusted Advisor, Atlanta Art Week’s Advisory Board, and is a Board Member for The Gibbes Museum of Art’s Society 1858 where he serves as Co-Chair of the Fundraising Committee. Shane resides in Charleston, South Carolina with his husband Nic and their dog, Goose.

Speaker

Paul Schwennesen

 Speaker

Paul Schwennesen, Director, Global Strategy Decisions Group

Topic:  Ukraine: A Strategic Outlook — From the Trenches

Date:  Wednesday September 17, 2025

Dr. Paul Schwennesen is a military affairs analyst and environmental historian. His major research interests are in the geopolitics of liberty movements and the environmental and transatlantic history of the 16th century. He holds a PhD from the University of Kansas and a Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University.

Paul obtained his undergraduate degree in history and science at the United States Air Force Academy where he graduated with distinction as the John R. Rupp scholar in interdisciplinary studies and gained his first formal introduction to classical liberal thought. He served six years as an Air Force Officer including a combat-zone deployment to Afghanistan and was named Company Grade Officer of the Year shortly before separating as a Captain in order to pursue private business. Paul has a Master’s degree in Government from Harvard University where he did his thesis under the direction of Harvey Mansfield.

Paul served ten years in the US military in weapons-systems acquisition, foreign area intelligence, and flightline operations which included deployments to Central America and Afghanistan. In 2022 he volunteered in Ukraine to provide civilian aid and combat training on the frontlines against the Russian invasion. He was presented with the Verhkhovna Rada medal by the Ukrainian Parliament for “Merit to the Ukrainian People.” His writing has appeared at Law & Liberty, the New York Times, American Spectator, Claremont Review, and in textbooks on environmental ethics (Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill).

He is a regular contributor to AIER and his writing has appeared at the New York Times, American Spectator, Claremont Review, and in textbooks on environmental ethics (Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill). He is the father, most importantly, of three delightful children.

 

Speaker

Alan Kahan

Speaker

Alan S. Kahan, Professor of British Civilization, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

Topic: “Freedom from Fear:  An Incomplete History of Liberalism”

Date:  Wednesday March 19, 2025

Alan S. Kahan is an historian, political theorist, translator, travel writer, and resident of Paris. He is Professor of British Civilization at the University of Versailles/St. Quentin.  Kahan received his PhD in history from The University of Chicago in 1987.  Having previously taught at Florida International University in Miami, he has been living in France since 2007 and is a connoisseur of croissants.

Kahan is the author of Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville (Oxford, 1992); Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe: the Political Culture of Limited Suffrage; Alexis de Tocqueville Palgrave, 2003); Mind vs. Money: The War Between Intellectuals and Capitalism (Transaction, 2010, Routledge 2017); and Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion (Oxford, 2015). He is also the translator of Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the Revolution (Chicago, 2 vols. 1998, 2001) and Benjamin Constant’s Commentary on Filangieri’s Works (Liberty Fund, 2015).

His most recent work, Freedom from Fear: An Incomplete History of Liberalism, was published by Princeton University Press in 2024.

From 2021 to 2023, Kahan served as a visiting scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy at the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  View Kahan’s 2020 CU Boulder lecture at the following link: Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion.

Speaker

Burnie Maybank

Speaker:

Burnet “Burnie” R. Maybank III, Counsel, Adams and Reese, LLP

Topic: “Economic Development in South Carolina”

Date:  February 25, 2025

Burnie Maybank is a member of the Intersection of Business and Government Practice in Adams and Reese, LLP’s Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina offices.

Burnie represents public/private businesses, commercial real estate developers, government, and nonprofits in state and local tax (SALT), state and local tax controversy issues, and economic development incentives, including opportunity zone matters, as well as abandoned building and historic preservation tax credits.

He has additional experience in exempt organizations and charitable giving, conservation easements, alcohol beverage control, and regulatory work before the Public Service Commission.

State and local tax controversy work is a large area of Burnie’s practice. He represents taxpayers in numerous Administrative Law Court, Court of Appeals, and South Carolina Supreme Court cases, as well as writing amicus briefs for various local and state tax councils, business chambers, and manufacturing alliances.

Burnie has co-authored many of the state economic development incentives and released South Carolina Department of Revenue policy documents on the incentives when he served two terms as Department of Revenue Director under former governors Mark Sanford (2003-2005) and David Beasley (1995-1999). He also served two terms as Chair of the Job Development Credit Act Subcommittee of the South Carolina Coordinating Council for Economic Development.

Burnie has received many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance’s “Defender of Manufacturing” Award.

At the request of Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, Burnie served on the South Carolina Transportation Infrastructure Study Committee to examine the benefits of public/private partnerships to improve the state’s roads, highways and bridges.

He also formerly served as Chair of the S.C. Tax Realignment Commission, at the request of Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, to submit a comprehensive state tax restructuring plan.

 

Speaker

Ryan Yonk

Speaker

Dr. Ryan Yonk, Senior Research Faculty, American Institute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, MA

Topic: “The China Dilemma: Rethinking US-China Relations”

Time:  12 Noon

Date:  November 13, 2024

Location:  The Palmetto Club

Time: 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm

Location: Palmetto Club. Buffet lunch included (guests/non-members: $40).

Dr. Yonk is Senior Research Faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research.  He holds a PhD from Georgia State University and a MS and BS from Utah State University. Prior to joining AIER he held academic positions at North Dakota State University, Utah State University, and Southern Utah University, and was one of the founders of the Strata Policy.

He is the (co) author or editor of numerous books including Green V. Green, Nature Unbound: Bureaucracy vs. the Environment, The Reality of American Energy,  and Politics and Quality of Life: The Role of Well-Being in Political Outcomes. He has also (co) authored numerous articles in academic journals including Public Choice, The Independent Review, Applied Research in Quality of Life, and the Journal of Private Enterprise. His research explores how policy can be better crafted to achieve greater individual autonomy and prosperity.

Speaker

Joey Von Nessen

Speaker:

Dr. Joey Von Nessen, Research Economist,  Division of Research, Darla Moore School of Business

Topic: “The Short- and Long-Run Economic Outlook for South Carolina”

(Thoughts on the current economic outlook and the long-term growth drivers in advanced manufacturing, the automotive industry, and logistics)

Date:  THURSDAY September 19, 2024

Dr. Von Nessen is a research economist in the Division of Research at the Darla Moore School of Business where he specializes in regional economics, regional economic forecasting and housing economics. He regularly conducts a wide variety of economic impact analyses, feasibility studies and independent market research projects for clients in both the private and public sector.

Dr. Von Nessen engages in industry-level and regional economic forecasting for organizations at the state, national and international level. He has served as lead researcher on projects with clients as diverse as Sonoco, BlueCross BlueShield, Michelin, Boeing and the Savannah River National Lab, among others. He has also been the recipient of many grants from both local and national sources, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Dr. Von Nessen is also responsible for the preparation and presentation of the University of South Carolina’s annual statewide economic forecast. He serves on the advisory committee of the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors and is regularly invited to brief the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond on economic conditions in South Carolina. He frequently appears on programs at national conventions, including the International Builders Show, the 21st Century Building Expo and the North American Regional Science Council and its subsidiaries.

Speaker

G. Marcus Cole

Upcoming Speaker

Speaker:
Dr. G. Marcus Cole, Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN

Topic: “The Value of Values in Higher Education”

Date:  FRIDAY August 30, 2024

Dr. Cole is the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. He was appointed by University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and began his term on July 1, 2019. He is the 11th dean in the history of Notre Dame Law School.

Dean Cole is a leading scholar of the empirical law and economics of commerce and finance. He was a faculty member at Stanford Law School from 1997 until he came to Notre Dame. At Stanford, he held two endowed chairs and taught courses in the areas of bankruptcy, banking, contracts, and venture capital. In addition, he served for five years as associate dean for curriculum and academic affairs.

His research has explored questions such as why corporate bankruptcies are increasingly filed in Delaware and what drives the financial structure of firms backed by venture capital. His recent research has involved the ways in which the world’s poor are using technology to solve their own problems, often in the face of government restrictions hindering such solutions.

Before joining the Stanford faculty, he was an associate with the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown. He clerked for Judge Morris Sheppard Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Speaker

Samuel Gregg

Dr. Samuel Gregg, Distinguished Fellow in Political Economy and Senior Research Faculty, American Institute for Economic Research

Topic: “What’s Really Going On With Stakeholder Capitalism”

Dr. Gregg is a Distinguished Fellow in Political Economy and Senior Research Faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research. He has a D.Phil. in moral philosophy and political economy from Oxford University, and an M.A. in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne.

He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, monetary theory and policy, and natural law theory. He is the author of sixteen books, including On Ordered Liberty (2003), The Commercial Society (2007), Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy (2010); Becoming Europe (2013); Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization (2019); The Essential Natural Law(2021); and The Next American Economy: Nation, State and Markets in an Uncertain World (2022). Two of his books have been short-listed for Conservative Book of the Year. Many of his books and over 400 articles and opinion pieces have been translated into a variety of languages. He is also a Contributor to Law and Liberty, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Affiliate Scholar at the Acton Institute, a Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He also serves as a Visiting Scholar at the Heritage Foundation.

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