As Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media, Forbes offers a good grasp of international affairs as well as business and economics. His podcast What’s Ahead features honest conversations with top newsmakers about good news and bad around the world.

His 2019 book, co-written with Elizabeth Ames, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It (2014) inspired a Maryland public TV documentary, In Money We Trust? (2019) More recently, he is the first author of Inflation: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, and How to Fix It (2022).

After taking a degree in history at Princeton, Steve went to work as a researcher for Forbes Magazine, under his father, Malcolm S. Forbes. On his father’s death in 1990, he became CEO of the company as well as editor in chief of the magazine. While expanding the company’s publishing ventures, he became active in politics as well, twice running for President and working on other campaigns.

Possibly because Forbes earned his insights on the economy the hard way (that is, while running a business), he is the sort of thinker who gets quoted:

“The Declaration of Independence, the words that launched our nation — 1,300 words. The Bible, the word of God — 773,000 words. The Tax Code, the words of politicians — 7,000,000 words — and growing!”

“There is something fundamentally unfair about a government that takes away so much of people’s money, power, and personal control while telling them that life will be better as a result.”

“Start by scrapping the tax code. Don’t fiddle with it. Junk it. Throw it out. Bury it. Replace it with a pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that lowers tax rates to 17% across the board and expands exemptions for individuals and children so that a family of four would pay no taxes on the first $36,000 of income.”

“As more money flowed through Washington and as Washington’s power to regulate our lives grew, opportunities and temptations for graft, influence peddling and cutting corners grew exponentially. Power breeds corruption.”

”The politicians say ‘we’ can’t afford a tax cut. Maybe we can’t afford the politicians.“

– “Steve Forbes,” A–Z quotes

It is fair to say that Forbes is not one of those people who think that, for every problem, there is a bigger and better government solution.

What about the national debt?

Forbes recommends ending the much-discussed “debt ceiling.” That’s because, as he pointed out in a recent article, the controversy over the ceiling is a long running melodrama. It creates a predictable buzz for the public without changing much:

Raising the ceiling is often preceded by lots of drama—social security benefits and payments for Medicare and Medicaid will be in danger are routine cries—as a deadline approaches. Resolving the crisis then requires deals with various congressional members to get the job done. In fact, too many times the process has ended up generating even more spending…

Productive policies would include cutting tax rates; cutting unnecessary spending; rooting out waste, fraud and abuse; pursuing deep deregulation and generating more revenue from expanding energy production. Hmm! Does all this sound familiar?

Another necessity is forcing the Federal Reserve to focus on stabilizing the value of the dollar rather than suppressing economic activity.

“Why Trump Is Right About Ending The Debt Ceiling,” Forbes, March 31, 2025

Of course, as he hints rather loudly here, actual policy changes aimed at fiscal prudence produce controversy when various sectors’ interests are threatened. Congressional seats may be threatened too, perhaps. Media-friendly drama is much safer for politicians than action would be.

Agree? Disagree? Feel strongly?

If you pay taxes in the United States, “Has the Bill Come Due?” — the COSM 2025 discussion at noon on Thursday, November 20, at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas — is a good place to be.

Alongside Forbes, two other panelists will offer different takes. They are Mark Skousen, Doti-Spogli Chair of Enterprise, Chapman University, and John Tamny, a Forbes editor and the author of The Deficit Delusion (2025).

The just-published Deficit Delusion contends

In his latest and arguably most pathbreaking book, Parkview Institute president John Tamny asks readers to contemplate government debt in an all-new way, and in doing so makes a powerful case that deficits and the national debt will continue to grow precisely because left, right and supply side profoundly misunderstand why there’s debt in the first place …

Drawing on examples from private individuals and businesses, Tamny turns the debt discussion on its head. Far from a signal of insufficient revenue, Tamny shows that government debt is a logical and perilous effect of market optimism about rising tax revenues now, and much more dangerous, the expectation of exponentially more tax revenue in the future.

Readers of The Deficit Delusion will gradually see the folly of a deficit and debt discussion that has grown stale and terribly confused … From the Publisher

Tamny and his boss, Forbes, will have much to talk about, with Skousen weighing in. Philosopher of technology George Gilder will moderate.

Forbes has spoken at COSM before. Here he is at COSM 2019 (right):