Designing US Economic Policy: An Analytical Biography of Leon H. Keyserling

190 Pages·2001·1.039 MB·English

by  W. Robert Brazelton (auth.)

Designing US Economic Policy
Also by W. Robert Brazelton
ALTERNATIVE STREAMS IN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Designing US
Economic Policy
An Analytical Biography of
Leon H. Keyserling
W.Robert Brazelton
Professor of Economics
University of Missouri – Kansas City
USA
© W.Robert Brazelton 2001
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ISBN 978-1-349-41688-2 ISBN 978-0-230-50851-4 (eBook)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brazelton,W.Robert.
Designing US economic policy :an analytical biography
of Leon H.Keyserling / W.Robert Brazelton.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.United States—Economic policy—1945–1960.
2.Keyserling,Leon Hirsch.3.Economists—United
States—Biography.I.Title.
HC106.5 .B713 2000
338.973'0092—dc21
00–033328
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface viii
1. Biographical Background and Analytical Analysis 1
2. Influences of the Times: The 1930s 7
3. Leon H. Keyserling and the Council of Economic
Advisers 17
Introduction 17
The Employment Act 19
The historical record of the Council, 1946–53 27
The Eisenhower comparison: a brief note 53
The Council, 1946–53: an overview 57
Appendix 1: A Personal Postscript 60
Appendix 2: Keyserling’s Anti-inflationary Policy and
Cost Curves: A Simplified Analysis 61
4. Selected Testimonies: Hearings Before the Joint
Economic Committee of Congress (HJEC) 64
Introduction 64
The Council years, selected testimony 66
The post Council years, selected testimony 68
Conclusion 80
5. Keyserling after the Council of Economic Advisers:
“The Conference on Economic Progress” 82
Introduction 82
A selected review: The Conference on Economic
Progress 83
6. Other Writings of Leon H. Keyserling: The Problems
of Economic Balance and the End of Poverty – the
Crucial Connection 133
The balanced economy and progress of poverty:
the vital interdependence 133
v
vi Contents
7. The Theoretical Analysis of Leon H. Keyserling and
Economic Policy 141
Appendix 1: The Concept of Economic Growth in
Economic Analysis 157
Appendix 2: Brief Chronology and Biographical
References by Leon H. Keyserling
(Edited: W. Robert Brazelton) 160
Appendix 3: Other Related Articles, Not Quoted Herein
(But Presented to Author by
Leon H. Keyserling) 162
Appendix 4: Book-Length Publications of
Leon H. Keyserling 166
(Conference on Economic Progress)
Notes 168
Bibliography 169
Index 177
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Dr Benjamin Zobrist, former Director of
the Harry S. Truman Library, a Presidential Library, for financial
support for the original study of Keyserling and the economic
policies of the Truman era. The author also wishes to thank Dennis
Bilger and others of the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence,
Missouri, USA, for their aid, patience, and cooperation.
Any acknowledgement would be incomplete without a special
mention of Dr Willadee Gillan Wehmeyer who worked with me on
the original report to the Truman Library on the research project
financed by that Library. That project included both an analytical
biography of both Leon Hirsch Keyserling and, also, his wife – a
respected economist and “feminist” in her own right – Mary Dublin
Keyserling entitled: Leon H. Keyserling and Mary Dublin Keyserling,
Growth and Equity: Over Fifty Years of Economic Policy and Analysis,
from Truman to Bush, 1989, Truman Library, Independence,
Missouri, USA.
Special thanks go to both Leon Keyserling and Mary Keyserling.
Their cooperation was crucial, and the association with them is a
bright spot in my memory.
Thanks, also to my typist, Linda Raske; my Doctoral Assistant,
Jessie Jo Johnson, whose advice, sincere interest, patience, and pre-
editing were crucial. Also, I would be remiss not to mention David
Lazarus and the other staff members in Government Documents at
the Miller Nichols Library of the University of Missouri–Kansas City
for their aid and patience.
Naturally, all errors, oversights, et alius herein are the author’s.
vii
Preface
This book is a revision of a previous study, supported by the Harry S.
Truman Library, Independence, Missouri, USA, by myself and
Willadee Gillan Wehmeyer, a graduate student at the University of
Missouri–Kansas City, and now an instructor at Central Nazarene
University, Olathe, Kansas.
The Truman Library study involved several interviews, usually of
several days in length, with both Leon Hirsch Keyserling and his
wife, Mary Dublin Keyserling, in their home in Washington, DC. In
the original study, both Chapter I and Chapter II were personal in
nature. Chapter I involved the personal recollections of Willadee
and myself concerning the Keyserlings. Chapter II involved the
Keyserlings’ personal stories concerning events, personalities, con-
versations between personalities, et cetera, that are of great interest
to historians and biographers. However, in this book, both chapters
have been deleted for a study of the economic events and of econ-
omic thought that existed at the time of the Keyserlings’ youth;
their years of education; and the economic realities of the United
States in the pre-World War II and the post-World War II periods.
Thus, this specific book is more for economists or economic stu-
dents and interested lay persons, rather than historians and bio-
graphers of the Truman Era. For those who wish to read the original
study by Willadee and myself, it is available in Independence,
Missouri at the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri,
USA.
The original copy on deposit at the Truman Presidential Library
included both a study of Leon H. Keyserling and Mary Dublin
Keyserling by myself and Willadee Wehmeyer. After that study,
Dr Wehmeyer completed her Doctoral dissertation on Mary Dublin
Keyserling (Mary Dublin Keyserling: Economist and Social Activist,
University of Missouri–Kansas City, 1994) which expanded upon
her contribution to the original work on the Keyserlings. This
present work includes only an analysis of Leon Keyserling
by myself. The work on Mary Dublin Keyserling will be published
separately by Dr Wehmeyer. It is, I believe, an important work in
viii
Preface ix
relation to the Roosevelt-Truman eras, and of the women’s
movement of that and later periods.
W. Robert Brazelton