TT's Lost in Tokyo — by TokyoTom

I just ran across at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center a helpful video featuring Lawrence H. White, professor of economics at GMU, discussing “Thoughts on Monetary Policy, Free Banking and Financial Crisis”.

In watching the video, I noticed that White’s inerviewer was Fritz Thomas, head of the School of Economics at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, an institution I hadn’t heard of.  A little more digging shows this to be a relatively new (founded in 1971) but highly regarded private university in Guatemala founded by a student of Austrian economics, “Muso” Manuel Ayau.

Ayau, who died on August 4, 2010, was a businessman, educator and politician, a member and President of the Mont Pelerin Society, on the board of directors of the Liberty Fund and a trustee of the Foundation for Economic Education. In Guatemala, he was a member of congress from 1970–74, a presidential candidate in the 1990 elections, and served in other public capacities. Ayau founded Samboro,the largest tile producer in Central America, was the founding president of Guatemala’s stock exchange and served on the boards of IBM Latin America and of Guatemala’s central bank. Ayau also founded the Centro de Estudios Economico-Sociales; CEES grew into UFM, but remains extant and is now housed at the Ludwig von Mises Library on the UFM campus.

UFM, which is nicknamed the “University of Free Marketers,” describes its mission as “to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal and economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons.” Earlier this year Reason.tv posted a brief description of UFM and a 9 minute video: “Universidad Francisco Marroquin (aka University of Free Marketeers)” Says Reason, “In other words, the people at UFM want the people of Guatemala to be free. This is, of course, no small task in a country that has been plagued by political corruption and socialist policies for so long.

These days, the same can be said of the United States, though it is not so clear how much US citizens themselves want to be free.

More on UFM and Ayau at this 2010 article in the Latin Business Chroncle and in this 2008 article in the Los Angeles Times. Here is a link to the Manuel F. Ayau Society, which has been established to honor his memory.

Lawrence White is a distinguished expert on monetary theory and banking history. More on his background  here.

And here, at last, is the link to the 41-minute video at UFM!