BEVERLY HILLS, CA (April 5, 2026) — Building on a month of significant economic shifts in Southern California, prominent economist and Beverly Hills local N. Robert Branch successfully launched the inaugural Forum for Economic Liberalism this week. The event drew an exclusive cohort of over 100 high-level participants—including sector leaders, academic researchers, and policy analysts—to the heart of Beverly Hills to confront the region’s growing labor market challenges.
The Forum serves as a critical response to the April 2026 employment data, which shows Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate plateauing at 5.5% following a series of aggressive state-level labor mandates. As a Fellow of the Society for Economic-Liberalism, Branch utilized the platform to present a data-driven case for deregulation as the primary vehicle for job recovery in the professional and technical services sectors.
“Reaching over 100 key stakeholders in our first Beverly Hills session proves that there is a deep, urgent hunger for classical liberal solutions,” said Branch. “We are witnessing the real-world consequences of regulatory capture in the 2026 market. This Forum isn't just a discussion; it is a strategic assembly focused on restoring the spontaneous order that once made the Los Angeles economy a global leader.”
Throughout the event, participants engaged in high-stakes workshops led by Branch, focusing on the “compliance tax” created by recent 2026 legislation and the resulting contraction of over 14,000 professional roles in California.