James M. Buchanan (October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013)

James M. Buchanan, one of the past century’s most distinguished economists and most compelling champions of free markets, died earlier today at age 93. His professional career spanned more than sixty years, during which he wrote extensively on public finance, economic philosophy, and other topics in related areas. With Gordon Tullock, he founded a new subfield of economics, public choice, which has become established as a flourishing area of research, writing, and teaching.

James M. Buchanan, R.I.P.

My graduate school professor and one-time George Mason University colleague, the Nobel laureate economist James M. Buchanan, has passed away at the age of 93.  In a 1990 article in the Review of Austrian Economics I argued that many (or most) of Jim Buchanan’s most important contributions to public finance and public sector economics are rooted in his Austrian School, subjectivist roots.  Jim’s books, Cost and Choice, and What Should an Economist Do?

IP LIMBO - Roldan’s Caricature of Hayek and Keynes

One of my favorite caricatures of Hayek and Keynes was used on the cover The Hayek-Keynes Debate: Lessons for Current Business Cycle Research (1999). If my memory is correct, Fred Glahe (co-author) discovered the drawing in an issue of The Economist somewhere in the mid to late 1990s. We tracked down the artist and received permission to use the drawing on the cover to which we owe a grateful debt to the now deceased creator Ismael Roldan.

The Stateless Equilibrium

The stateless market society—a peaceful social arrangement based on voluntary relations among individuals in which the state is not present—is not a popular idea. Many people believe that this society would lack the capacity to define and enforce property rights, and that this would result in chaos, tyranny of the rich or in a reversal to a state. This belief has led to a widespread dismissal of the stateless society paradigm.

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