He was the founder and president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit libertarian think tank.
[1] He wrote on topics such as antitrust law, environmental regulation, and the economic impacts of global warming.
degree in Theoretical Mathematics and Political Science from Tulane University where he earned the Arts and Sciences "Dean's Medal" (Tulane’s highest academic award) and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
In 2003, Smith lobbied the Secretary of the Treasury against a proposal that would require banks to report interest earned by non-resident aliens.
[5][6] Smith defended contributions of companies such as ExxonMobil to groups skeptical of climate change, explaining that support for such organizations can be expected to rise as public interest in global warming issues increases, saying, "Firefighters' budgets go up when fires go up.