President's Day

From 2008 over on Austrian Economists

Laissez-fairist U.S. Presidents

A few weeks ago at a dinner, I was sitting across from the great Martin_van_buren_3 Leonard Liggio. Over the course of the meal, we talked about various U.S. Presidents and I asked who, in his opinion, the real laissez-faire supporters among all the U.S. Presidents were. Leonard came up with the following list (there are only six of them). The order is from the most laissez-fairist to the least (dates of presidency in brackets):

• Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 and 1893-1897)
• Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)
• Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
• Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
• Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
• Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)