Washington Post columnist to speak at COBE's Global Capitalism event

Steven Pearlstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning business and economics columnist for The Washington Post, will be the featured speaker at the Radford University College of Business and Economics (COBE) Global Capitalism Distinguished Speaker Series event at 10 a.m., Friday, April 4 in COBE Building room 204. The event is sponsored by BB&T.

In Pearlstein's talk, he will address the question: "Is Capitalism Moral?"

In addition to being a columnist, Pearlstein is a Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University. He was awarded the Gerald R. Loeb Award for commentary in 2007 and the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2008 for columns the previous year anticipating and explaining the recent financial crisis and global economic downturn.

In 2011 Pearlstein won the Gerald R. Loeb Award for lifetime achievement in business and financial journalism. His work has also been cited by the Society of Business Editors and Writers.

Pearlstein has appeared frequently as a commentator on national television and radio programs. He continues to write a bi-weekly column for the Post's Sunday Business section and oversees the Post's leadership website, On Leadership.

Pearlstein joins a distinguished group of previous speakers who have participated in the BB&T-COBE series: Christopher Coyne, director of graduate studies of the Department of Economics at George Mason University; Hamid Ghanadan, founder and president of the Linus Group; Mary Rose Carosia and Theresa Werner of S&P Capital IQ; Kevin Daley, a past vice president at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and founder of Communispond; former BB&T Chair and Chief Executive Officer John Allison; Jason Bingham, vice president, Central Territory of North America, for Ingersoll Rand; and Keith Shields, senior statistician and analytic development lead for Marketing Associates in Detroit.

For more information about the Global Capitalism Distinguished Speaker Series, call the COBE office at (540) 831-5187.