Lawrence Reed, president of the New York-based Foundation for Economic Education, spoke to over 60 students and others Feb. 2 at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. In his talk, "Great Myths of the Great Depression," Reed (photo at left) showed how the Great Depression was largely caused by loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and then prolonged by misguided government interventions in the economy.

Attendee Dick Ripp found the presentation to be "excellent and eye-opening," and "contrary to a lot of what's in the history books, which is really scary."

Earlier that day, event sponsors arranged to have Reed featured on the Mandy Connell show on the local Fox radio affiliate, 92.5 FM.

The event was organized by the Lee County RLC along with the Southwest Florida Young Republicans, College Republicans and Eagles for Liberty, a non-partisan libertarian student group. Special thanks to RLCers Vince Perfetto (photo at right) and Mercedes Price-Harry, president of the Southwest Florida Young Republicans, for their role in this important educational effort.

It wasn't the first nor will it be the last time time the Lee County RLC put Reed and other prominent libertarian educators in front of Southwest Floridians. Last year Reed spoke under RLC auspices locally. And on Feb. 11, Bob Levy -- onetime Florida RLCer and president of the libertarian Cato Institute -- will be speaking in Estero as part of BB&T bank's lecture series. The RLC is helping to promote the event. For more information, go here.

Levy will focus on the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in the constitutional protection of individual rights. Levy and William Mellor of the Institute for Justice jointly authored the recent book The Dirty Dozen: How 12 Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom.