James Laurence Laughlin, 1850-1933.

The American arch-conservative economist J. Laurence Laughlin studied under Charles Dunbar at Harvard and later dropped out of academia to make a small fortune in the insurance business.  He returned to teach at Cornell and been there a scarce two years before the newly-created University of Chicago invited him, in 1892, to form its first economics department.  Surprisingly, he appointed several institutionalists to the department - notably his old student at Cornell, Thorstein Veblen, whom he put at the head of Chicago's Journal of Political Economy.  However, Laughlin remained an avid free-marketeer and refused to become a member of the American Economic Association.  Laughlin's reputation rests on his work in monetary economics.  He was a vocal opponent to bimetallism and one of the more avid promoters of the Federal Reserve system.  

Major Works of J. Laurence Laughlin

• "The Refunding Bill of 1881", 1882, Atlantic Monthly
• "The French Panic", 1882, Atlantic Monthly
• "Evils of the Sub-Treasury System", 1883, North American Review
• " The New Party", 1884, Atlantic Monthly
• " The Silver Danger",1884, Atlantic Monthly
• "Workingmen's Grievances", 1884, North American Review
• " Shall Silver be Demonetizied?", 1885, North American Review
• " Our Political Delusion", 1885, Atlantic Monthly
• "Political Economy and the Civil War", 1885, Atlantic Monthly
• The Study of Political Economy, 1885.
• A History of Bimetallism in the United States, 1886.
• The Elements of Political Economy, 1887.
• "Gold and Prices since 1873", 1887, QJE
• The Principles of Money, 1893.
• "Monetary Reform in Santo Domingo", 1894, Atlantic Monthly
• "Cause of Agricultural Unrest ", 1896, Atlantic Monthly
• "Teaching of Economics", 1896, Atlantic Monthly
• Credit of the Nations, 1918.
• "Gold and Prices, 1890-1907", 1909, JPE
• "Causes of the Changes in Prices Since 1896", 1911, AER - discussion
• Banking Reform, 1911 - review
• Money and Prices, 1919. - review
• Banking Progress, 1921 - review
• A New Exposition of Money, Credit and Prices, 1931.
• The Federal Reserve Act, 1933.

Resources on J. Laurence Laughlin