I must have told a thousand people that the reason I came to Auburn, Alabama, was Roger Garrison and every time I did, I gave a silent thank you to him for being the crucial pivot point in my life.
It all started when I was a junior undergraduate economics major after having realized I was a “libertarian.” Subsequently, I had stumbled onto the Austrian School of economics and was desperate to learn more about free market economics. I came across a poster on the door of one of my professors announcing an IHS conference for something labeled, “Adam Smith was right, pass it on.” I applied and was accepted, not realizing at the time that I would have to explain where I was going for a week during the summertime.
The conference was at Bowling Green State University in Kentucky, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were several professors, but Roger was the only economist and was by far the most memorable to me. I remember his very cogent lecture on price controls and especially his lecture on business cycles. I was hooked.
Upon graduation, the economy was in terrible condition, I had made plans to go to graduate school, and eventually decided on Auburn University, again, not realizing that I would have to explain to friends and family that I would soon be heading off to Alabama.
Recently, I was interviewed by a financial podcast from England. I was very surprised but delighted with how the host introduced the topic of conversation.
I took Roger’s graduate macroeconomics class during my first term at Auburn University. It was a highly entertaining educational experience where a good deal of the class was a detailed examination of John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory. It was the “Bible” of economics and Roger was the devil’s advocate. He unpacked the book—chapter by chapter—noting how Keynes’s concepts played a role within macroeconomics and political economy. He would often push the analysis to show how Keynes diverged from other perspectives and even common sense. There would be one or more punchlines that would end in group laughter. I owe a great deal to Roger, and I will remember him very fondly from those early days of fun and laughter and the long uphill battle we faced.
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