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Anna Schwartz obituary as published by AIER
Below is the obit for Anna Schwartz writen by my friend Walker Todd of American Institute for Economic Research -- Chris
AIER [website homepage, www.aier.org]
http://www.aier.org/article/7685-anna-jacobson-schwartz-1915-2012
Anna Jacobson Schwartz, 1915-2012
Written by Walker F. Todd, PhD, JD, and Enrolled Agent, Research Fellow
Friday, 29 June 2012
One of the great American monetary economists, Anna Schwartz, died
Thursday, June 21, 2012, in New York City. She was 96 years old.
I first met Anna Schwartz in 1987, and we subsequently became friends.
Anna knew several of the monetary scholars who attended AIER’s summer
programs, and she visited and contributed articles to AIER over the
last 15 years or so.
Anna was best known as co-author with Milton Friedman of A Monetary
History of the United States, 1867-1960 (1963). She also was the staff
director of the United States Gold Commission, 1981-1982. Critics
sometimes misinterpret the Commission’s final report. They say that
the report should have taken a forthright stand in favor of the return
of the gold standard.
In a telephone interview during AIER’s May 2004 conference on the
feasibility of resuming the gold standard, Anna observed that the
staff could report only recommendations that the Commission was
prepared to make. Most members of the Commission were willing to go
only so far as to recommend that the U.S. Treasury issue commemorative
gold coins.
Anna noted that President Ronald Reagan was presumably in favor of the
return of gold and that he appointed several members of the
commission, including members of the executive branch. As she put it,
the Republican appointees were waiting for a signal from the White
House that never came. Her own role frequently was misunderstood, but
she faithfully reported the actual state of mind of that commission,
as was her custom. Rest in peace, Anna, for an intellectual life well
lived.
—Walker F. Todd, Research Fellow
Below are links to some of Anna's articles:
"Globalization"—Sep, 2007
"What to do About the Dollar"—Jan, 2007
"The 1981-82 Gold Commission"—May, 2004
"Risks to the Long-Term Stability of the Euro"—Sept, 2004
"What to Do About the Dollar"—May, 2005
"Bailout’s Purchase Plan Remains Unclear"—Oct, 2008
"Geithner in an Ideal World"—Mar, 2009
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Anna Schwartz, a truly remarkable woman, intelligent, kind, fearless thinker, RIP.
Politics aside, kinda sad it took 9-10 days for us to notice that she died. May she rest in peace. Nothing personal against him, but, all I've heard today is that Andy Griffith died and tom cruise is gettin a deee-vorce. We are still too lobotomized to pay attention to any news outside of popular entertainment. RIP Andy as well- you where one of the good ones.
Was it Andy Griffith who had a (brief) TV show about some "regular folks" launching a rocket to get a satellite made out of gold?
Friedmanite monetarist... but no, only Keynes is the devil incarnate...
RIP Anna. I met her in the 1990s and she was a pleasure/treasure. You may disagree with the Friedman/Schwartz school of thought, but at least they were serious unlike Krugman.
While Friedman may have been serious, his ideas were no better than Krugman's Keynesian Kool-Aid.
Promoting fraud as a beneficial economic tool is hardly a "study of economics," but rather is to be a foot soldier for the elite. Sure you can get quite serious in its analysis, but the whole idea requires a suspension of reality, replacing it with "theoretical constructs" and other methods seeking to obscure the mythology.
difficult to imagine an associate of Milton Friedman who deserves respect from the human race.
Then there's this label of "great American monetary economist." Interesting how many qualifiers it takes to make her a great economist.
Anybody know what Rothbard's opinion of her was (other than destroying her arguments concerning the "Great Depression" http://mises.org/journals/jls/16_4/16_4_3.pdf )?
Fuck monetarists from Chicago! If there's any doubt, here's Anna's thinking, in her own words ("What to do About the Dollar", 2007):
"What to do about the dollar? My answer is, Nothing. If the market has
overstated the decline in the dollar’s exchange rate, the market will correct
the overstatement. In a floating exchange rate system, currencies fluctuate.
Correction of the underlying problem of an imbalance between U.S. national
saving and investment is dependent to a great extent on the behavior
of the United States’ trading partners. (....)..."...The risk of a sudden stop in foreign financing of the current account
deficit, precipitating a financial crisis here, is a scare story. Even if it were
to happen, the size of the world capital market, the ample existing liquidity,
and the ability of the Federal Reserve to provide additional liquidity
defy the prediction of a financial crisis...."
I just want to believe this lady was too old when she wrote this, and could not think clearly...
RIP
Mr's Steiner and Croaker,l
Thanks for your positive comment on Anna Schwarz. Many, including myself, now have a new source of reading material for this difficult time.
Removed by GS.
I suggested Jim Sinclair consider planning to escort Anna Schwartz to the annual CMRE Spring dinner held this past May 17th. Jim was to present on this evening and Anna, well, she was but lingering ~ after decades of genuine attention and service to the dialogue and inquiry of economics. I don't know what might have become of that suggestion in the end, I was otherwise engaged.
The '95 CMRE monograph where she and Chris Whalen share page space.
Her work is well worth your time.
She will be missed.
Anna Schwartz was one of the few Old School people I seriously respected. She seemed to take great care in being factual and precise, without crossing the line into pushing her own judgements or conclusions. I heard her give a radio interview once, and was struck by how her collective body of knowledge and insight seemed to be overlooked by modern economists, because she held herself to a code of correct impartiality.
I'm pretty sure she was the one who pointed out that a pre-50's dictionary definition of "inflation" always attributed it as a symptom of "an increase in the money supply", where modern dictionaries seem to be vaguely confused as to the nebulous cause of "higher prices". She found that shift deplorable.
Anna played a large role in our ongoing play of human evolution, and we are better off for her contribution.