|  Richard
H. Timberlake Jr. is one of a handful of libertarian economists who
have helped challenge the myth that the free market caused the Great
Depression, and that President Franklin Roosevelt and his big-government
"New Deal" programs saved the nation from disaster.
In books, speeches, and articles, Timberlake has made the case that
the federal government helped create -- and significantly prolonged
-- the Depression by constricting the money supply and causing a "deflationary
disaster." Without the Federal Reserve's efforts to decrease the
amount of money in circulation, "the traditional gold standard
and clearinghouse adjustments in the form of accommodation to the commercial
banks would have righted the economy as early as 1931," Timberlake
said in an interview with the Objectivist Center's Navigator
(January 2001). "What is most important to understand is that the
contraction [of the money supply] and Depression were not economic events,
but the fruits of political decisions made by agencies of the federal
government."
Timberlake has spent his professional life pointing out the dangers
of powerful government banks. He is perhaps best known for Monetary
Policy in the United States: An Intellectual and Institutional History
(1993). George G. Kaufman, a professor of finance and economics
at Loyola University, said, "The book should serve as a red flag
to government economic policy makers who may be tempted to intervene
in markets under their purview in attempts to 'improve' or fine tune
the outcomes." St. Lawrence University economics professor Steve
Horwitz called the book "both readable and broadly libertarian."
Timberlake taught monetary economics at the University of Georgia from
1964 to 1990. (He is now a professor emeritus.) He has written five
books on monetary policy, including Money and Banking (1972),
The Origins of Central Banking in the United States (1978),
and Gold, Greenbacks, and the Constitution (1991). With Kevin
Dowd, he co-edited Money and the Nation State (1998). His essays
have been published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and
Finance and The Encyclopedia of Business History and Biography.
While his primary interest is economics, Timberlake has sometimes been
involved in politics. In 1996, he served on the campaign committee for
Harry Browne's Libertarian presidential campaign. That same year, he
was a speaker at the Libertarian Party's national convention in Washington,
DC.
Timberlake has also lent his name to various libertarian-leaning causes.
He signed The Separation of School & State Alliance's petition,
stating that he favors "ending government involvement in education."
In 2001, he co-signed a letter to President George W. Bush urging him
to reject the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's
"harmful tax competition" initiative, which would have defined
low taxes as a form of "financial protectionism."
Timberlake is also the author of They Never Saw Me Then (2002),
which recounts his experiences as a B-17 co-pilot who flew 26 missions
into Germany during World War II. He is working on a book entitled The
Supreme Court's Money, which focuses on monetary cases that have
been decided by the high court.
-- Bill Winter |
