James Orlin Grabbe

Grabbe wrote articles and essays about personal freedom and governmental abuse, and was an editor of Internet magazines such as the Laissez Faire City Times. Born and educated in the U.S., he pursued his business interests around the world. He died from heart failure around March 15, 2008 in San José, Costa Rica.

In 2005, Grabbe published a number of papers on quantum physics in arXiv.

Both DMT and the Laissez Faire Electronic Times were discontinued in 2004. At that time, the technological viability of Grabbe's proposals had been proven, not only in theory, but also in practice.

In January 2002, Grabbe resigned as editor of the City Times and started a new weekly online newspaper, Laissez Faire Electronic Times, sponsored by the newly operational DMT. Grabbe continued publishing the same type of essays as before, with many of the same authors. In October 2001, he separated himself from connections to the Laissez Faire City project, which ended in spring 2002. As a consequence of the closure of Laissez Faire City, its participants dispersed and services to the group of initial users of DMT were discontinued.

The Laissez Faire City Times and Laissez Faire Electronic Times paid writers for the right to edit and publish their articles, while each author retained the full copyright. When the publishers' sites were taken offline, in 2002 and 2004 respectively, direct access to these newspapers and all the articles ceased. Many still see these newspapers as important resources for highly valuable articles of philosophical and political significance in freedom-related and especially (but not exclusively) libertarian thought.

In November 1999, a series of articles in the Laissez Faire City Times presented the Digital Monetary Trust project, which was a proposed financial trust providing private, anonymous accounts for individuals and entities within the DMT system, in order to securely store anonymous capital or to make anonymous monetary transactions.

Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, produced an investigative segment about misinformation on the Internet that aired on March 2, 1997. Grabbe was interviewed on the show and presented as a representation of misinformation found online. Her comments about the dangers of anyone being able to create content on the Internet, rather than relying on mass media, led to further commentary online.

In November 1997, Orlin Grabbe was invited to edit an online weekly newspaper called the Laissez Faire City Times. The newspaper was loosely connected to the Laissez Faire City project based in Costa Rica. Grabbe relocated to Costa Rica the following year.

Grabbe's cryptology-focused "The End of Ordinary Money" was published in the July 1995 edition of Liberty. In a second article, "Digital Cash and the Future of Money", Grabbe explored routes toward digital finance.

Based in the New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Grabbe continued his professional career as a financial market consultant. He interspersed this time and furthered his interests in cultural expression by pursuing a formal education in media. In 1993, he created the company Kalliste Inc. and produced experimental films, as well as shows of fractal computer graphics. He also produced a CD, Cuba di mi Amor, featuring the Cuban pianist, Danilo Pina.

In parallel, Grabbe also published philosophical essays written from a libertarian/rational-anarchist viewpoint about personal freedom and the perceived increasing threats. This was exemplified in 1993, in a speech to the Eris Society, entitled "In Praise of Chaos".

In 1990, Grabbe sold his share of the company. The new owner, who was now partnered with Naib, ended up in disagreements, leading to a split of the company and the formation of FNX Limited, led by Naib. Until his death, Grabbe worked as a part-time consultant with FNX Limited. Under the umbrella of FNX, Grabbe created pricing models for complex derivatives, which were used by major banks around the world. FNX Limited has since become very successful in the market.

After graduating from Harvard, Grabbe accepted a position at the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania), working in the capacity of assistant professor in economics. Grabbe discovered that there was a lack of educational material for the emerging field of international finance and for the increased trading in financial derivatives created by this market. In 1986, he wrote International Financial Markets, which is used worldwide as an educational and professional reference of trading in derivatives. In the 1991 second edition of his International Financial Markets, Grabbe introduced the term regulatory arbitrage in the context of eurocurrency markets. One of Grabbe's students, Andrew Krieger, became a Bankers Trust FX trader and the author of The Money Bazaar.

In 1985, Grabbe transformed his informal interactions and founded FX Systems Inc. with one of his students, Farid Naib. When FX Systems continued to grow, Grabbe resigned from Wharton, in order to focus on the further development of the software. FX Systems stayed at the forefront of the emerging markets for financial derivatives, acquiring financial institutions as customers.

After leaving Ambassador, Grabbe enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, to pursue his interests in research and science, with an emphasis in mathematics. In 1976, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. He continued his education at Harvard University where he was awarded a Ph.D. in economics in 1981.

In the fall of 1966, Grabbe joined an older brother at the Worldwide Church of God's Ambassador College, based in Pasadena, California. He graduated in 1970 and served on the teaching staff until 1973. During this time, he was the editor of the student newspaper. In his memoir, written later in his life, he described not only his own experiences and thought processes, but also the atmosphere that permeated the college, its students, and the organization as a whole.

James Orlin Grabbe (/ˈɡreɪbiː/; October 8, 1947 – March 15, 2008) more commonly referred to as J. Orlin Grabbe, or just JOG, was an American economist and prolific writer with contributions in the theory and practice of finance. He was known by his book International Financial Markets, and for mathematical models for options and derivatives used in international finance and foreign exchange.

Orlin Grabbe was born October 8, 1947, in Hale County, Texas, and grew up on a farm in Briscoe County in the Texas Panhandle. He showed great academic prowess in his youth and in response, he was invited to participate in nationwide, specialized education in mathematics. Two of his brothers also achieved doctorates and became professors. His brother Lester was a professor of theology at the University of Hull in England, while his brother Crockett was a professor of physics at the University of Iowa.