Richard Henry Timberlake Jr. (June 24, 1922 – May 22, 2020) was an American economist who was Professor of Economics at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

for much of his career. He became a leading advocate of

free banking Free banking is a monetary arrangement where banks are free to issue their own paper currency ( banknotes) while also being subject to no special regulations beyond those applicable to most enterprises. In a free banking system, market forces co ...

, the belief that

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...

should be issued by private companies, not by a government monopoly. He wrote about the

Legal Tender Cases The ''Legal Tender Cases'' were two 1871 United States Supreme Court cases that affirmed the constitutionality of paper money. The two cases were '' Knox v. Lee'' and '' Parker v. Davis''. The U.S. federal government had issued paper money known ...

of the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

in his book ''Constitutional Money: A Review of the Supreme Court's Monetary Decisions''.

History

Born in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville ( ) is a city in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Weirton–Steubenville m ...

on June 24, 1922, Timberlake was in the US military in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He became a pilot in the U.S. Air Forces and flew 26 missions as a co-pilot in the 8th Air Force. He was awarded three

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

s. He obtained a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Kenyon College Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private instituti ...

in 1946, a Master's at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1950, and a Ph.D. in 1959 from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

where he studied under

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...

and Earl J. Hamilton. He then taught economics at

Muhlenberg College Muhlenberg College is a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg College is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is named for Henry Muhlenberg, the German pat ...

Norwich University Norwich University is a private university in Northfield, Vermont, United States. The university was founded in 1819 as the "American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy". It is the oldest of six senior military college, senior militar ...

, Rensselaer Polytechnic,

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

, and the

from 1963 to 1990, when he retired. Timberlake's research was on the

history of money The history of money is the development over time of systems for the exchange of goods and services. Money is a means of fulfilling these functions indirectly and in general rather than directly, as with barter. Money may take a physical form ...

central banking Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, and

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...

. He died in Georgia on May 22, 2020.

Ideas

Timberlake's research on the development of private moneys occurred at the time of

Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian-born British academic and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobe ...

's idea of ''

The Denationalisation of Money ''The Denationalisation of Money'' is a 1976 book by Friedrich Hayek. The author advocated the establishment of competitively issued private moneys. In 1978 Hayek published a revised and enlarged edition entitled ''Denationalisation of Money: T ...

'', extending and expanding upon it in coordination with the

movement. He believed that, instead of a government-imposed

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

, there should be a free market in the production of money, with banks choosing how to issue their own, competing currencies. Timberlake also examined the causes of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, and emphasized the switch of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

, starting in 1929, to the

real bills doctrine The real bills doctrine says that as long as bankers lend to businessmen only against the security (collateral) of short-term 30-, 60-, or 90-day commercial paper representing claims to real goods in the process of production, the loans will be jus ...

of money management, and an anti-speculation policy that severely reduced bank reserves and the amount of deposit money that the banks could create. The money supply contracted by 30% in four years, something that no market economy could tolerate. Along with Hayek of the

Austrian school The Austrian school is a Heterodox economics, heterodox Schools of economic thought, school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivat ...

of the Chicago school, and even the

Keynesian Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...

s, Timberlake saw this Fed policy as the primary cause of the Great Depression. However, Timberlake did not reject the

gold standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...

. While many economists blamed the gold standard for the monetary collapse, Timberlake cited data that refutes the validity of their complaints. He showed that the Fed Banks and U.S. Treasury had plenty of gold in the 1929–1933 period. Timberlake concluded that government interference with gold standard adjustments caused most of the trouble in the past, producing cycles of money growth and deflation, panic and depression. Timberlake's papers are housed at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University.

Politics

Timberlake was active in politics as a member of the Libertarian Party. He was involved in the

Harry Browne Harry Edson Browne (June 17, 1933 – March 1, 2006) was an American writer, libertarian political activist, and investment advisor. He was the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in the U.S. elections of 1996 and 2000 running on a platfor ...

presidential campaign, writing and signing open letters advocating various positions, such as

school choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to traditional public schools. School choice options include scholarship tax credit programs, open enrollment laws (which allow students to att ...

and rejection of policies that would have raised taxes. In the past he was a vocal and outspoken opponent of the science behind anthropogenic

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, writing a number of op-ed pieces for the '' Athens Banner Herald''. He was an adjunct scholar at the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...

Works

* ''Money and Banking'', with Edward Selby (1972) * * ''Gold, Greenbacks, and the Constitution'' (1991) * ''Money and the Nation State'', with Kevin Dowd (1998) * * ''They Never Saw Me Then'' (2002) * ''Constitutional Money: A Review of the Supreme Court’s Monetary Decisions'' (2013) * ''Gold, the Real Bills Doctrine, and the Fed: Sources of Monetary Disorder – 1922–1938'', with Thomas M. Humphrey (2019) Articles in: * ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance'' * ''The Encyclopedia of Business History and Biography''

References

External links

Biography at Advocates for Self-Government

Biography at Econ Journal watch
*
Podcast of Richard Timberlake on the gold standard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timberlake, Richard 1922 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists American economics writers Columbia University alumni Economics books by writer Economists from Ohio Florida State University faculty Georgia (U.S. state) Libertarians Historians of economic thought Kenyon College alumni Libertarian economists Military personnel from Ohio People from Steubenville, Ohio People from Athens, Georgia United States Army Air Forces bomber pilots of World War II University of Chicago alumni University of Georgia faculty