American Power and Policy

287 Pages·2009·1.796 MB·English

by  Robert Leeson (eds.)

American Power and Policy
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American Power and Policy
Editedby
Robert Leeson
Selectionandeditorialmatter©RobertLeeson2009
Individualchapters©Contributors2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-1-4039-4956-1
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Contents
NotesonContributors vii
1. Introduction 1
RobertLeeson
2. AmericanintheShadows:HarryDexterWhite
andtheDesignoftheInternationalMonetaryFund 6
JamesM.Boughton
3. BuildingupaMultilateralStrategyfortheUnitedStates:
AlvinHansen,JacobViner,andtheCouncilon
ForeignRelations(1939–45) 24
SebastianoNerozzi
4. AHands-offCentralBanker?MarrinerS.Ecclesand
theFederalReserve,1934–51 69
MatíasVernengo
5. TheGreatInflationofthe1970s:Evidencefrom
theArchives 91
JohnLodewijksandRobertLeeson
6. AnArchivalCaseStudy:RevisitingTheLifeand
PoliticalEconomyofLauchlinCurrie 105
RogerJ.Sandilands
7. NewEvidenceonAllynYoung’sStyleandInfluence
asaTeacher 134
RogerJ.Sandilands
8. AScholarinActioninInterwarAmerica:JohnH.Williams
onTradeTheoryandBrettonWoods 180
PierFrancescoAssoandLucaFiorito
v
vi Contents
9. ShapingMonetaryConstitutionsforDeveloping
Countries:SomeArchivalEvidenceonthe
BloomfieldMissionstoSouthKorea(1949–50) 243
MicheleAlacevichandPierFrancescoAsso
NameIndex 267
SubjectIndex 274
Notes on Contributors
MicheleAlacevich
ResearchFellow
DepartmentonPolitics,LawandSociety
UniversityofPalermo
[email protected]
PierFrancescoAsso
ProfessorofHistoryofEconomics
UniversityofPalermo
DepartmentofEuropeanStudiesandInternationalIntegration(DEMS)
[email protected]
JamesM.Boughton
Historian
DevelopmentandReviewDepartment
InternationalMonetaryFund.
[email protected]
LucaFiorito
AssociateProfessorofHistoryofEconomicThought
UniversityofPalermo
DepartmentonPolitics,LawandSociety
[email protected]
RobertLeeson
VisitingFellow
HooverInstitution
StanfordUniversity
AdjunctProfessorofEconomics
NotreDameAustraliaUniversity
[email protected]
JohnLodewijks
ProfessorofEconomicsandHeadofSchool
UniversityofWesternSydney
[email protected]
vii
viii NotesonContributors
SebastianoNerozzi
Researcher
UniversityofPalermo
DepartmentonPolitics,LawandSociety
[email protected]
RogerJ.Sandilands
ProfessorofEconomics
UniversityofStrathclyde
[email protected]
MatíasVernengo
AssistantProfessorofEconomics
UniversityofUtah
[email protected]
1
Introduction
Robert Leeson
Having examined the structure of influence within the Keynesian and
anti-Keynesiantraditions(volumes1and2intheseriesArchivalInsights
intotheEvolutionofEconomics),thisvolumefocusesmoredirectlyon
economistsandthepolicyprocess.Inthetwentiethcentury,theUnited
StatesreplacedtheUnitedKingdomasthecenterofbothacademiceco-
nomics and the international economy. In the process, the position of
theUnitedStateswithregardtomultinationalbodieswastransformed:
fromdecliningtobeinvolved(LeagueofNations,1920)tocollaborative
construction(BrettonWoods,1944)toallthearroganceandanxietiesof
solesuperpowerstatus.
The chapters below highlight aspects of a multi-layered structure of
influencewithinthepolicyprocess.Theyareprimarilyconcernedwith
thenineeconomistsassociatedwiththebirthoftheInternationalMon-
etary Fund (IMF) and the expanding influence (and independence) of
theFederalReserveSystem:HarryDexterWhite,LauchlinCurrie,Alvin
Hansen,JacobViner,MarrinerEccles,ArthurOkun,AllynAbbottYoung,
JohnH.WilliamsandArthurBloomfield.
The first six will be familiar to many non-economists. White’s plan
underpinned the IMF; Currie was the first professional economist to
work as a presidential adviser in the White House (a forerunner to the
post-warpositionofchairofthePresident’sCouncilofEconomicAdvis-
ers, CEA). Hansen and Viner (presidents of the American Economic
Association, Hansen in 1938 and Viner in 1939) were influential lead-
ersofcompetingschools(KeynesianandChicago,respectively).Eccles,
the son of a rags-to-riches Mormon polygamist, was chair of the Fed
(1935–48) during the period of the first stage of its (institutional)
independencefromtheTreasury.Okun(afterwhomthe‘Okungap’–the
1
R. Leeson (ed.), American Power and Policy
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2009