I'll write more on him later potentially.
He got a lot right, with public choice and constitutional economics. He also got a lot quite wrong, particularly his take on the political economy of the Keynesian revolution. But he certainly was a talented and productive economsit well deserving of his Nobel prize.
While death is no laughing matter, can you please give us a link giving official word of his passing, Daniel Kuehn?
ReplyDeleteSee below for one link.
DeleteWho is laughing???
I was being figurative. I wasn't sure if Buchanan's passing was true because you didn't supply a link to a newspaper obituary or something.
Deletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-09/james-m-buchanan-nobel-prize-winning-economist-dies-at-93.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cato.org/blog/james-m-buchanan-rip
ReplyDelete"James Buchanan no longer the most overrated living economist." - Matthew Yglesias (Kuehn's hero)
ReplyDeleteBuchanan was an important figure in my intellectual development. I remember how I studied his Cost and Choice when it first came out during my senior year in college. I was so overjoyed that an economist of his stature in the profession would see merit in LSE-Austrian subjectivism. As the years went, I becaome very interested in the political philosophy of David Hume and the role of rules in society. Buchanan led the way here. I will miss him.
ReplyDeleteMario Rizzo.
General principle that to get a lot of things right you have to get a lot of things wrong...reassuring for any writer!
ReplyDelete