Fred Smith

The story of Federal Express and Emery Air Freight and the passing of CEO Fred Smith

Fred Smith died Saturday at age 80. Read Forbes’ 1977 profile of Smith, from bone cancer, to war, to the billionaires list.

Fred Smith, a Marine veteran and the founder and former CEO of FedEx, has given $65 million to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (MCSF). The gift is the largest ever received in MCSF’s 60-year history.

Markets expanding into areas where transfers were once considered impossible can alleviate shortages, including items as sensitive as kidneys. To gain a greater understanding of that reality, advocates of this reform should craft a series of narratives about the beneficiaries of such exchanges.

Freer trade yields significant economic benefits; labor and environmental rules may or may not. But the latter may be pursued in other international institutions. Shouldn’t trade agreements focus on trade alone?

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Forbes we sat with the 100 greatest living business minds, including Fred Smith, founder of FedEx.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Forbes we sat with the 100 greatest living business minds, including Fred Smith, founder of FedEx. Photography by Martin Schoeller

Fans of free markets and limited government have a new place to seek allies. Recently Conservatives International, a new global advocacy organization, was launched at a conference in Miami.

Capitalism is a moral order. Its defenders must realize that fact and become more effective at communicating it to others. Re-reading Adam Smith and recognizing the critical duality of self-interest and empathy is a good starting point and a great way to celebrate his birthday.

For President-elect Donald Trump to deliver on his “make American great again,” promise, economic growth must again exceed today’s anemic rate. Reforming tax policy, reducing spending, repealing preferential regulations – all will be needed – but, perhaps, most important will be to attack the unholy alliances of economic and ideological [...]

What can 220 CEOs learn at a “Conscious Capitalism” conference? Perhaps valuable insights into the purpose and value of their businesses. Perhaps also, ways to communicate those attributes and, in the process, better defend themselves and their firms from anti-business attacks. CEOs must learn that focusing only on the self-interest [...]

It’s difficult to wage a war without allies, and the War of Ideas is no different. Yet, capitalist defenders—free market intellectuals and wealth-creating business leaders—rarely seem to work together to defend capitalism. Might that be changing?

The Brexit planners in London have a complex and difficult task ahead of them, but not an impossible one.

Recently, the Republicans assembled in Cleveland approved a platform that includes some praiseworthy planks on government reform, but one provision stood out as a jarring case of “one of these things is not like the others.” The platform committee called for the return of banking regulation from the New Deal era [...]

Some of the natural resources we use every day are traded freely in the market economy, while others are heavily regulated and controlled by government agencies. History has shown us which structure is likely to lead to material progress and prosperity, and which to dwindling supplies. Economists and political commentators [...]

Despite living at a time of unprecedented decreases in poverty around the world, we’re witnessing a seemingly unprecedented increase in worry about income inequality in wealthy countries like the United States. And, not surprisingly, capitalism and its practitioners are often said to be to blame. When the news media and [...]