Money and Markets: Essays in Honor of Leland B. Yeager

The Virginia renaissance in political economy 43a window of opportunity that rarely opens in the academy. I am sure that those ofus involved, whether alive or dead, are quite willing to leave to others who are moredetached in time, place, and value stance any ultimate assessment of the inclusiveenterprise.Notes* Leland Yeager played a critically important role in Virginia’s “decade of the 1960s” inpolitical economy. Rather than examine this role in isolation, I examine the inclusiveresearch program in retrospect; the “Yeager difference” emerges clearly.1 An incomplete listing includes: James Buchanan, Ronald Coase, James Ferguson,Alexandre Kafka, John Moes, Warren Nutter, James Schlesinger, Gordon Tullock,Rutledge Vining, Andrew Whinston, and Leland Yeager.2 James Schlesinger also resigned from the faculty near the end of the decade discussed. I donot include his name here, nor do I refer to him in the narrative account, because,although he was a fully participating member of the institutional and research faculty,he did not consider himself to be a part of the “team” in Virginia political economy. Nordid those of us on the team consider Schlesinger as a participant in the academicexperience.3 See James M. Buchanan (1988, 1992). By necessity, for purposes of narrative continuity,there will be some overlap between the earlier treatments and that in this paper. Foranother perspective, see William Breit (1986).4 A revised and shortened version of this book was published as The Politics of Bureaucracy(1965).5 These included: Clark Warburton on the quantity theory; Murray Rothbard and ArthurKemp on the gold standard; Benjamin Graham on commodity-reserve money; GeorgeTolley on 100 percent banking; Milton Friedman and Jacob Viner on central bankindependence. There were additional lectures by Clarence Philbrook, James Buchanan,Willford King, and Richard Selden.ReferencesBreit, William (1986). Virginia Political Economy Lecture: Creating the “Virginia School”: Charlottesvilleas an Academic Environment in the 1960s. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University,Center for Study of Public Choice monograph.Brennan, Geoffrey and James M. Buchanan (1981). Monopoly in Money and Inflation: The Casefor a Constitution to Discipline Government. Hobart Paper 88. London: Institute of EconomicAffairs.Buchanan, James M. (1969). Cost and Choice: An Inquiry in Economic Theory. Chicago:Markham.Buchanan, James M. (1983). Monetary Research, Monetary Rules, and Monetary Regimes.Cato Journal, 3(Spring): 143–6.Buchanan, James M. (1988). Nutter Memorial Lecture: Political Economy: 1957–82.In Ideas, Their Origins, and Their Consequences: Lectures to Commemorate the Life and Work ofG. Warren Nutter. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 119–30.Buchanan, James M. (1992). Virginia Political Economy: Some Personal Reflections. InBetter than Plowing: And Other Personal Essays. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press,93–107.Buchanan, James M. and Gordon Tullock (1962). The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations ofConstitutional Democracy. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.