Leland B. Yeager
{{Short description|American economist (1924–2018)}}
{{Infobox economist
| name = Leland B. Yeager
| school_tradition = Virginia School
Austrian School
| image = Yeager.jpg
| caption = Tullock and Yeager
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|10|4|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2018|4|23|1924|11|4}}
| death_place = Auburn, Alabama, U.S.
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|Oberlin College (AB)|Columbia University (MA, PhD)}}
| field = Monetary policy, international trade
| doctoral_advisors = James W. Angell, Ragnar Nurkse
| influences = Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Friedrich Hayek
| influenced =
}}
Leland Bennett Yeager ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|j|eɪ|g|ər}}; October 4, 1924 – April 23, 2018) was an American economist dealing with monetary policy and international trade.[http://www.cato.org/people/leland-yeager Cato Institute. "Adjunct Scholar."]
Biography
Yeager graduated from Oberlin College in 1948 with an A.B. and was granted an M.A. from Columbia University in 1949 and a Ph.D. from there in 1952. He had previously served in the United States Army in World War II, translating Japanese codes. He temporarily served as the Vice President of the Interlingua Institute from 1997 to 1998 after Deanna Hammond died. He was a regular contributor to Liberty magazine[http://www.libertyunbound.com/editors Liberty: Editors & Staff] and an occasional contributor to the "Mises Daily".[https://mises.org/daily/author/268/ Mises Daily author listing], Ludwig von Mises Institute
He was a professor emeritus at both Auburn University and the University of Virginia. His monetary writings have strongly opposed Keynesian orthodoxy and have emphasized the crucial role of money in business cycles. His 1956 essay, "A Cash-Balance Interpretation of Depression"{{cite journal|last=Yeager|first=Leland B.|title=A Cash-Balance Interpretation of Depression|journal=Southern Economic Journal|date=1956|volume=22|issue=4 |pages=438–447|doi=10.2307/1054532|jstor=1054532}} maintained that depression was caused by "an excess demand for money, in the sense that people want to hold more money than exists." In this, he was a member of the monetarist school exemplified by Milton Friedman.
His subsequent writings tilted towards a laissez-faire approach to monetary reform. In his 1989 paper "Can Monetary Disequilibrium Be Eliminated", he advocated that government "be banished from any role in the monetary system other than that of defining a unit of account or numeraire.""Can Monetary Disequilibrium Be Eliminated", Cato Journal 9, pp. 405–419, Cato Institute Yeager argued in favor of constitutional monarchy.{{cite news|last=Yeager|first=Leland B.|title=A Libertarian Case for Monarchy|newspaper=Mises Institute |url=https://mises.org/library/libertarian-case-monarchy|date=12 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105161202/https://mises.org/library/libertarian-case-monarchy|archive-date=5 January 2022}}
The month before his death Yeager wrote about the "destructive and ignorant" trade policy of United States President Donald Trump.{{cite web|title=Leland Yeager on Trump and Trade|url=https://www.cato.org/blog/leland-yeager-trump-trade|website=Cato Institute|accessdate=24 April 2018|language=en|date=11 March 2018}} Yeager died in April 2018 at the age of 93.[https://mises.org/wire/leland-yeager-rip Mises Institute: Leland Yeager, R.I.P.]
Bibliography
- Foreign Trade and U.S. Policy: The Case for Free International Trade (1976) {{ISBN|0-275-56270-0}}
- International Monetary Relations: Theory, History and Policy (1976) {{ISBN|0-06-047323-1}}
- Proposals for government credit allocation: Evaluative studies in economic policy (1977) {{ISBN|0-8447-3281-8}}
- Experiences With Stopping Inflation (1981) {{ISBN|0-8447-3439-X}}
- The Fluttering Veil: Essays on Monetary Disequilibrium (1997) {{ISBN|0-86597-146-3}}
- Ethics As Social Science: The Moral Philosophy of Social Cooperation (2001) {{ISBN|1-84064-521-0}}
- Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty? Essays in Political Economy ([https://cdn.mises.org/Is%20the%20Market%20a%20Test%20of%20Truth%20and%20Beauty_%20Essays%20in%20Political%20Economy_2.pdf Full Text]). (2012) {{ISBN|1279974303}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Internet Archive author |sname= Leland Yeager}}
- [https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/nwzdhq5bcs4tapmgq6gfy/Yeager-Annotated-Bibliography.pdf?rlkey=b9qkisz1mqr6oujvhqiooeps2&e=1&st=d1crhbey&dl=0 “Leland B. Yeager: An Annotated Bibliography of His Work” by Armaan Bahl]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeager, Leland}}
Category:Economists from Illinois
Category:American libertarians
Category:Auburn University faculty
Category:Cato Institute people
Category:Libertarian theorists
Category:Military personnel from Illinois
Category:Mises Institute people
Category:University of Virginia faculty