Key Takeaways
- • Liberty Fund and The Neal and Jane Freeman Foundation named Senator Phil Gramm and Professor Donald Boudreaux the inaugural recipients of The Liberty Fund Prize for Advancing Economic Liberty, presented at a ceremony at Liberty Fund headquarters in Carmel, Indiana, on Monday, October 12, 2026.
- • The prize honors lifetimes of work explaining that competitive markets are expressions of human liberty and that their defense requires clarity of thought and steadfastness of purpose.
- • Gramm, a former economist at Texas A&M and long-serving U.S. House and Senate member, continues to write on economic policy as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
- • Boudreaux, affiliated with George Mason University, the Mercatus Center and the Foundation for Economic Education, writes the Café Hayek blog and co-authored The Essential Hayek and Globalization.
- • Liberty Fund, founded in 1960 by Pierre F. Goodrich, stated that a recording of the recipients' fireside chat will be released at a later date.
Summary
Liberty Fund announced that Senator Phil Gramm and Professor Donald Boudreaux have been named the inaugural recipients of The Liberty Fund Prize for Advancing Economic Liberty, presented by The Neal and Jane Freeman Foundation, according to a PRWeb press release. The prize was presented during a ceremony at Liberty Fund headquarters in Carmel, Indiana, on October 12, 2026. The release says both honorees have deepened public understanding of how competitive markets sustain a free society through decades of teaching, writing and public discourse.
The prize is designed to honor those who have illuminated the foundations of free markets and advanced them in the wider world. According to the release, it reflects a principle held by Liberty Fund and by Neal B. Freeman: that competitive markets are expressions of human liberty itself and that their defense requires both clarity of thought and steadfastness of purpose.
Gramm began his career as an economist, spending more than a decade at Texas A&M University writing on monetary theory, private property and the economics of natural resources. He later became a prominent advocate for fiscal restraint and economic freedom while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and he continues to write and speak on economic policy as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Boudreaux has focused on teaching the principles of economics through George Mason University, the Mercatus Center, the Foundation for Economic Education and his writings on trade, prices, competition and property. He writes the Café Hayek blog and authored books including The Essential Hayek and Globalization.
Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana, said the pair have spent their careers explaining why free people and free markets remain the surest engine of human prosperity. Nate Feltman, Chairman of Liberty Fund's Board of Directors, said the honorees have made the case for economic freedom to students, readers and the public across their careers. In a separate statement, Neal B. Freeman, Chairman of The Neal and Jane Freeman Foundation, argued that friends of free markets face a difficult debate and that the free economy must repeatedly justify itself against measures of income and wealth inequality. A recording of the recipients' fireside chat will be made available at a later date.
The prize is designed to honor those who have illuminated the foundations of free markets and advanced them in the wider world. According to the release, it reflects a principle held by Liberty Fund and by Neal B. Freeman: that competitive markets are expressions of human liberty itself and that their defense requires both clarity of thought and steadfastness of purpose.
Gramm began his career as an economist, spending more than a decade at Texas A&M University writing on monetary theory, private property and the economics of natural resources. He later became a prominent advocate for fiscal restraint and economic freedom while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and he continues to write and speak on economic policy as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Boudreaux has focused on teaching the principles of economics through George Mason University, the Mercatus Center, the Foundation for Economic Education and his writings on trade, prices, competition and property. He writes the Café Hayek blog and authored books including The Essential Hayek and Globalization.
Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana, said the pair have spent their careers explaining why free people and free markets remain the surest engine of human prosperity. Nate Feltman, Chairman of Liberty Fund's Board of Directors, said the honorees have made the case for economic freedom to students, readers and the public across their careers. In a separate statement, Neal B. Freeman, Chairman of The Neal and Jane Freeman Foundation, argued that friends of free markets face a difficult debate and that the free economy must repeatedly justify itself against measures of income and wealth inequality. A recording of the recipients' fireside chat will be made available at a later date.
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