Stephen R. Soukup is the senior commentator, vice president, and publisher of The Political Forum, an independent research provider that delivers research and consulting services to the institutional investment community, with an emphasis on economic, social, political, and geopolitical events likely to have an impact on the financial markets in the United States and abroad. He is also the director of The Political Forum Institute, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating and preserving community, primarily among those who earn their living and create wealth for the nation through the capital markets. Soukup has followed politics and federal regulatory policy for the financial community since 1996, when he joined the award-winning Washington research office of Prudential Securities. He is also a fellow in culture and economy at the Culture of Life Foundation.