Designing US Economic Policy

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 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-41688-2 ISBN 978-0-230-50851-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230508514 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 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 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 033328

Contents Acknowledgments Preface vii 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 preediting 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, conversations 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 economic 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 students and interested lay persons, rather than historians and biographers 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