F. A. Hayek (1899 - 1992), recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and cowinner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and a leading proponent of classical liberalism in the twentieth century. Lawrence H. White is the F. A. Hayek Professor of Economic History at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, The Theory of Monetary Institutions. He is currently a visiting professor at Queen's University Belfast.