Contributors
Elizabeth Currier
Elizabeth Currier runs the Committee for Monetary Research and Education which is engaged in education on current markets and the principles of sound money. Elizabeth's avatar is of an actual gold coin with her portrait and the slogan, "ex pecunia sana libertas" which means, "from sound money, liberty." To fulfill its purpose, CMRE conducts meetings and publishes educational materials covering critical issues - prospects for inflation/deflation, trends in the bond, stock and currency markets, conditions in the banking industry and markets around the world. As this website progresses we shall provide current essays and some from our records. The Committee has gained an admirable reputation for the quality of its speakers and its authors and the value of the information it has provided for over thirty-five years.
Kevin Dowd
Kevin Dowd is an emeritus professor at the Nottingham University Business School and a visiting professor at the Pensions Institute. He also taught at the University of Sheffield (as department chair 1997-1999), Sheffield Hallam University, and the University of Nottingham. Dowd holds a B.A. (first class honours) from the University of Sheffield, a M.A. in economics from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Sheffield.
As well as free banking, monetary economics and the current financial crisis, Dowd's interests include financial economics, risk management, pensions and longevity. In addition to his many publications in scholarly journals, he is the co-author (with Martin Hutchinson) of Alchemists of Loss: How Modern Finance and Government Intervention Crashed the Financial System (Wiley, 2010), Measuring Market Risk (Wiley, 2002, second edition 2005), An Introduction to Market Risk Measurement (Wiley, 2002), Money and the Market: Essays on Free Banking (Routledge, 2000), Beyond Value at Risk: The New Science of Risk Management (Wiley, 1998), Competition and Finance: A New Interpretation of Financial and Monetary Economics (Macmillan Press, 1996), Laissez-Faire Banking (Routledge, 1993), and The State and the Monetary System (Philip Allan Publishers, 1989), and Private Money: The Path to Monetary Stability (Institute of Economic Affairs, Hobart Paper No. 112, 1988). He is the editor (with Richard H. Timberlake, Jr) of Money and the Nation State: The Financial Revolution, Government and the World Monetary System (Independent Institute, 1998), The Experience of Free Banking (Routledge, 1992), and (with Mervyn K. Lewis) Current Issues in Monetary Theory and Policy (Macmillan Publishers, 1992).
Professor Dowd is an andjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, a senior fellow at the Cobden Centre, and a member of the academic advisory council at the Institute of Economic Affairs. He serves as associate editor of The Journal of Risk and The Journal of Risk Model Validation and serves on the editorical board of the Cato Journal, the Journal of Accounting and Finance, the International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance, and Management, The Journal of Portfolio Management, the Journal of International and Global Economic Studies, and Qualitative Research in Financial Markets.
He lives in Sheffield, England, with his wife and two daughters.
Richard Ebeling
Richard Ebeling is Professor of Economics at Northwood University. He was formerly president of the Foundation for Economic Education (2003–2008), was the Ludwig von Mises Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College (1988–2003) in Hillsdale, Michigan, and served as vice president of academic affairs for the Future of Freedom Foundation (1989–2003).
Born in New York City in 1950, he received his B.A. in economics from California State University, Sacramento, and his M.A. in economics from Rutgers University. Professor Ebeling has been a lecturer in economics at the National University of Ireland at Cork (1981–1983), and assistant professor of economics at the University of Dallas (1984–1988).
While serving as vice president for the Future of Freedom Foundation, Professor Ebeling co-edited and contributed to five of its books and he wrote a monthly article and book review for FFF's publication Freedom Daily. His articles have also appeared in The Freeman, Reason Magazine, Libertarian Review, Critical Review, Political Studies, Advances in Austrian Economics, The Austrian Economics Newsletter, International Journal of World Peace, American Journal of Economics and Sociology,and numerous other publications. As well, his articles have been published in Brazil, England, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Russia.
Among his writings are Political Economy, Public Policy and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition (Routledge, 2010); Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003); "A Rational Economist in an Irrational Age: Ludwig von Mises" (The Age of Economists: From Adam Smith to Milton Friedman, Hillsdale College Press, 1999); "Wilhelm Ropke: A Centenary Appreciation," (The Freeman, October 1999); "Friedrich A. Hayek: A Centenary Appreciation" (The Freeman, May 1999); "The Free Market and the Interventionist State," (Between Power and Liberty: Economics and the Law, Hillsdale College Press, 1997); "Mission to Moscow: Ludwig von Mises's 'Lost Papers' and Their Signficance," (Liberty Magazine, April 1997); "The Global Economy and Classical Liberalism: Past, Present and Future," (The Future of American Business, Hillsdale College Press, 1996); "World Peace, International Order and Classical Liberalism," (International Journal of World Peace, December 1995); "The Political Myths and Economic Realities of the Welfare State," (American Perestroika: The Demise of the Welfare State, Hillsdale College Press, 1995) and "Liberalism and Collectivism in the 20th Century," (The End of 'Isms'? Reflections on the Fate of Ideological Politics after Communism's Collapse, Blackwell, Publishers, 1994).
Professor Ebeling also lectures widely on the problems of economic reform and change in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, as well as lecturing on economic policy in the United States, particularly on the topics of monetary policy, government regulation and the welfare state, and the economics of growth, stability and international trade.
He and his wife, Anna, live in Midland, Michigan, with their chocolate Labrador, Ludwig von Mises IV.
Steve Horwitz
Steve Horwitz is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. He is the author of two books, Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (Routledge, 2000) and Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order (Westview, 1992), and he has written extensively on Austrian economics, Hayekian political economy, monetary theory and history, and the economics and social theory of gender and the family. His work has been published in professional journals such as History of Political Economy, Southern Economic Journal, and The Cambridge Journal of Economics. He is also an Affiliated Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center in Arlington, Virginia where he has published public policy research on Walmart's role in Hurricane Katrina recovery as well as on the ongoing recession. His current project is a book tentatively titled Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of the Modern Family. Horwitz is the book review editor of the Review of Austrian Economics, an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and a co-editor of the book series Advances in Austrian Economics. He is also a contributing editor and weekly online columnist for The Freeman.
He has been a visiting scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University and a past recipient of three fellowship research grants from the Earhart Foundation and an F. Leroy Hill summer fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies. From 1993 to 1998, he held the Flora Irene Eggleston Faculty Chair at St. Lawrence University, where he also was awarded the Frank P. Piskor Lectureship for 1998-99 and the J. Calvin Keene Award in 2003. From 2001 to 2007, he served as the Associate Dean of the First Year. Horwitz has spoken to professional, student, policymaker, and general audiences throughout the US and Canada, and is also a recurring guest on Fox Business Channel's Freedom Watch program and an occasional contributor to PBS's Nightly Business Report blog. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society, he completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics at George Mason University and received his A.B. in economics and philosophy from the University of Michigan.
Vern McKinley
Vern McKinley is an attorney, financial analyst, policy analyst and author specializing in central bank and deposit insurance operations and policy. He has worked the past twelve years in advising a variety of government clients, principally applying his expertise to improving central bank and deposit insurance operations, and banking supervision and regulatory systems for central banks and financial agencies. McKinley has worked on a full range of financial stability issues, including management of central banks; stress testing and failure prediction models; strategies for addressing banking crises, including resolution of problem financial institutions; deposit insurance and bank supervision design; and coordination of interagency actions among multiple financial sector agencies. Prior to his time as an advisor, McKinley worked for 15 years at a number of the US financial agencies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Resolution Trust Corporation and Treasury's Office of Thrift Supervision.
Currently McKinley is finalizing the editing of a book to be published by the Independent Institute that traces the past century of financial institution bailouts in the US, focusing in particular on the most recent financial crisis. In researching the book, he has brought four lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, FDIC and Federal Housing Finance Agency to secure details on the bailouts. He has also completed work on Central Bank Modernisation, a book on change management in central banks. McKinley co-authored one of the book’s lead chapters and has applied the methodology from the chapter to a number of operations assessments of central banks. In an earlier policy analysis for Cato Institute over a decade before their demise ("The Mounting Case for Privatizing Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac"), McKinley labeled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "financial time bombs" and warned that they "expose the federal taxpayer to an ever-increasing potential contingent liability that could ultimately cost tens of billions of dollars to rectify."
Mr. McKinley holds dual bachelors degrees (with honors) in finance and economics from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a J.D. (with honors) from George Washington University.
Gerald O'Driscoll
Gerald O'Driscoll is a widely quoted expert on banking and monetary policy. He serves as a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Previously the director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation, O'Driscoll was senior editor of the annual Index of Economic Freedom, co-published by Heritage and The Wall Street Journal. He has also served as vice president and director of policy analysis at Citigroup, and vice president and economic advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He has also served as staff director of the Congressionally mandated Meltzer Commission on international financial institutions. He is widely published widely in leading publications, including The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on national radio and television, including Fox Business News, CNBC and Bloomberg. With a dozen years experience as a university professor, O’Driscoll speaks regularly at academic conferences and universities. O'Driscoll holds a B.A. in economics from Fordham University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from UCLA.
Richard Rahn
Richard Rahn is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute and the Chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth. He is also a weekly economic columnist for The Washington Times, and serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review.
Dr. Rahn served for two terms (2002-2008) as the first non-Caymanian member of the Board of Directors of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, which regulates the world’s largest offshore financial center. In the 1980s, Dr. Rahn served as Vice President and Chief Economist of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, Executive Vice President and Board member of the National Chamber Foundation, and as the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Economic Growth. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the American Council for Capital Formation. In 1990-1991, he served as the U.S. co-chairman of the Bulgarian Economic Growth and Transition Project. In 1982, President Reagan appointed Dr. Rahn as a member of the Quadrennial Social Security Advisory Council. During the 1988 Presidential campaign, he served as an economic advisor to President G.H.W. Bush.
In 1990, Dr. Rahn founded the Novecon companies, which included Sterling Semiconductor (now owned by Dow Corning). He continues to serve on boards of private companies.
Professor Rahn has taught at Florida State University, George Mason University, George Washington University, and Rutgers University; and at the Polytechnic University of New York, where he served as head of the graduate Department of Management. He also was an instructor for the U.S. Air Force and the Washington economic advisor for New York Mercantile Exchange.
Dr. Rahn is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society. He serves as a member of the Board of: the American Council for Capital Formation, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation and as a member of the Board of Visitors of the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.
Dr. Rahn has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, National Review, and The National Interest. He has contributed to numerous books and professional journals and is the author of the book The End of Money and the Struggle for Financial Privacy (1999). As an economic commentator, he has appeared on such programs as the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kudlow and Co., Wall Street Week, MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour and Crossfire, and was a weekly commentator for Radio America. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on economic issues more than seventy-five times.
Dr. Rahn earned: a B.A. in economics at the University of South Florida, from which he received the "Distinguished Alumnus Award," an M.B.A. from Florida State University, a Ph.D. from Columbia University, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Pepperdine University.
Kurt Schuler
Kurt Schuler is an economist in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department. In his spare time he edits Historical Financial Statistics (a free, noncommercial online data set) for the Center for Financial Stability. He has written a number of publications about the history of free banking and about other monetary systems. Because the Treasury Department discourages employees from commenting publicly on current policy issues within its purview, he refrains from discussing such issues here. His views represent no official Treasury Department position. As befits a bureaucrat, he has chosen to remain faceless, hence we have posted no photo of him.
George Selgin
George Selgin is a Professor of Economics at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. His research covers a broad range of topics within the field of monetary economics, including monetary history, macroeconomic theory, and the history of monetary thought. He is the author of The Theory of Free Banking (Rowman & Littlefield, 1988), Bank Deregulation and Monetary Order (Routledge, 1996), Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy (The Institute of Economic Affairs, 1997), and, most recently, Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage (University of Michigan Press, 2008). He has written as well for numerous scholarly journals, including the British Numismatic Journal, The Economic Journal, the Economic History Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, and for popular outlets such as The Christian Science Monitor, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other popular outlets. Professor Selgin is also, a co-editor of Econ Journal Watch, an electronic journal devoted to exposing “inappropriate assumptions, weak chains of argument, phony claims of relevance, and omissions of pertinent truths” in the writings of professional economists. He holds a B.A. in economics and zoology from Drew University, and a Ph.D. in economics from New York University.
Judy Shelton
Judy Shelton, economist and author of Money Meltdown and The Coming Soviet Crash, recently wrote A Guide to Sound Money as part of her work co-directing the Sound Money Project for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. The guide was published with FreedomWorks, which is distributing 100,000 copies to its volunteer network.
Walker Todd
Walker Todd, research fellow and conference organizer for the American Insititute for Economic Research, lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, near Cleveland, and has been affiliated with AIER in one capacity or another since 1995. An instructor in the AIER Summer Fellowship Program, he teaches a course on the history and origins of competing theories of property rights. He is an attorney admitted to practice in Ohio and New York and is an economic consultant with 20 years’ experience at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Federal Reseve Bank of Cleveland. He has been an instructor in the Special Studies program at Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY, since 1997. He holds a Ph.D. in French from Columbia University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law. A director and program organizer for the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, he was an adjunct faculty member of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University, for 13 years. He has numerous publications, both for AIER and for others, on banking, central banking, monetary and property rights topics, including those related to international debt, the International Monetary Fund, and the regulation of the banking system and financial markets.
Larry White
Larry White is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He specializes in the theory and history of banking and money, and is best known for his work on free banking. He received his A.B. from Harvard University and his M. A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He previously taught at New York University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri - St. Louis.
Professor White is the author of The Clash of Economic Ideas (Cambridge, forthcoming); The Theory of Monetary Institutions (Basil Blackwell, 1999); Free Banking in Britain (2nd ed., Institute of Economic Affairs, 1995; 1st ed. Cambridge, 1984), and Competition and Currency (NYU, 1989). He is the editor of F. A. Hayek, The Pure Theory of Capital (Chicago, 2007); The History of Gold and Silver (3 vols., Pickering and Chatto, 2000); Free Banking (3 vols., Edward Elgar, 1993); The Crisis in American Banking (NYU, 1993); William Leggett, Democratick Editorials (Liberty Press, 1984); and other volumes. His articles on monetary theory and banking history have appeared in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, and other leading professional journals.
In 2008 White received the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Association for Private Enterprise Education. He has been Visiting Professor at Queen's University of Belfast, Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, Visiting Research Fellow and lecturer at the American Institute for Economic Research, visiting lecturer at the Swiss National Bank, and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-edits a book series for Routledge, Foundations of the Market Economy. He is a co-editor of Econ Journal Watch, and hosts bi-monthly podcasts for EJW Audio. He is a member of the board of associate editors of the Review of Austrian Economics and a member of the editorial board of the Cato Journal. He is a contributing editor to the Foundation for Economic Education's magazine The Freeman and lectures at the Foundation's annual seminar in Advanced Austrian Economics. He is an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Bradley Jansen (editor)
Bradley Jansen is the director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, part of the Liberty and Privacy Network, a Washington DC-based non-profit founded in 2005 to defend privacy, civil liberties and market economics. He is an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Previously at the Free Congress Foundation, Jansen safeguarded privacy and other Constitutional liberties including testifying before Congress on the USA PATRIOT Act proposal, National ID, and other issues. While working for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, he initiated and lead opposition to the "Know Your Customer" proposal. Jansen holds a B.A. in International Studies from Miami University (Ohio), learned Spanish at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and with advanced studies in economic history at Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile) and law and economics at George Mason University School of Law.
He is a columnist with The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post and Nolan Chart.
Chuck Moulton (editor)
Chuck Moulton is associate director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights and coordinator of its Free Banking Project. He is a graduate lecturer at George Mason University currently teaching classes on Money & Banking. Previously a law clerk at the Cato Institute, he researched issues for scholars affiliated with the Center for Constitutional Studies. Moulton holds a M.A. in economics from San Jose State University, a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, and a B.S. in mathematics from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is an ABD Ph.D. student in economics at George Mason University, writing a dissertation on the transition to free banking under the direction of Professor Larry White. Mr. Moulton is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California and is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian.
