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Ted Balaker
Producer, Reason.TV

Ted Balaker is a producer for the Drew Carey Project at reason.tv, and a policy analyst at Reason Foundation. His reason.tv contributions have addressed topics such as drug and education policy, gambling, traffic congestion, and eminent domain.

Balaker is co-author, with Reason's Sam Staley, of the book The Road More Traveled: Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You Think and What We Can Do About It (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters says, "Balaker and Staley clearly debunk the myth that there is nothing we can do about congestion." Urban historian Joel Kotkin suggests the book “should be required reading, not only for planners and their students, but for anyone who loves cities and wants them to thrive.”

Balaker has advised legislators in several states on transportation and outsourcing policy. His research focuses urban policy and workplace issues, and includes recent studies on mobility, telecommuting, and offshore outsourcing.

Balaker's articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including Investor's Business Daily, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Orange County Register, and The Washington Post. He has been a commentator on many television and radio programs, including ABC World News Tonight, The CBS Evening News, and CNBC’s On the Money.

Balaker is former editor of Privatization Watch, a Reason publication that analyzes the latest developments in outsourcing and government reform. Prior to joining Reason, Balaker spent five years producing for ABC Network News.

Balaker graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Irvine, with bachelor degrees in Political Science and English.

Samuel Staley
Director of Urban and Land Use Policy, Reason Foundation

Samuel Staley is director of urban and land use policy at Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank advancing free minds and free markets.

Staley is co-author, with Reason's Ted Balaker, of the book The Road More Traveled: Why the Congestion Crisis Matters More Than You Think and What We Can Do About It (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, says, "Balaker and Staley clearly debunk the myth that there is nothing we can do about congestion."

Staley's previous book, Smarter Growth: Market-based Strategies for Land-use Planning in the 21st Century (Greenwood Press, 2001), was called the "most thorough challenge yet to regional land-use plans" by Planning magazine.

Staley is the author of two other books: Drug Policy and the Decline of American Cities (Transaction Publishers, 1992) and Planning Rules and Urban Economic Performance: The Case of Hong Kong (Chinese University Press, 1994).

Staley's approach to urban development and policy blends more than 20 years of experience as an economic development consultant, academic researcher, urban policy analyst, and community leader. Governing and Planning magazines have identified him as one of the nation's foremost critics of conventional smart growth and a leader in developing practical, market-oriented alternatives.

His professional articles have appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Journal of the American Planning Association, Capital University Law Review, Urban Land, Planning magazine, and many others. He is the co-editor, with SUNY-Purchase College economist Sanford Ikeda, of a symposium on "urban interventionism" published by the Review of Austrian Economics (June 2004).

Staley is a former chair his local planning board in his hometown of Bellbrook, Ohio. He is also a former member of its Board of Zoning Appeals and Property Review Commission, and a former chair of its Charter Review Commission. He is currently a trustee of The Miami Valley School, an independent, K-12, college preparatory school in Dayton, Ohio.

Staley received his B.A. in Economics and Public Policy from Colby College, M.S. in Social and Applied Economics from Wright State University, and Ph.D. in Public Administration, with concentrations in urban planning and public finance from Ohio State University.

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