Thomas M. Humphrey

Thomas M. Humphrey joined the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 1970, after receiving his PhD in economics from Tulane University. He had a 35-​year career at the Richmond Fed, during which he established himself as an authority on the history of monetary thought, especially the lender-​of-​last-​resort doctrine and the quantity theory of money. For most of his time at the Richmond Fed, he was the editor of the research department’s journal. Humphrey was the author of dozens of scholarly articles and five books, including (with Richard H. Timberlake) Gold, the Real Bills Doctrine, and the Fed: Sources of Monetary Disorder 1922–1938 (2019).