Marginal Revolution University (MRU) has put out an excellent video on the late Anna J. Schwartz, one of the first really successful female economists.
I started to write down some reminiscences, but realized that I did so in 2012 when she died. I’ll mention one thing and then hit some highlights in this 8-minute video.
One of my upsets is hearing people refer to Milton Friedman‘s book A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, rather than the correct way to refer to it: Milton Friedman’s and Anna J. Schwartz’s A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. She wasn’t just some bit player, as the video makes clear.
Now to the highlights: Christina Romer, Claudia Goldin, and Michael Bordo all have nice meaty comments about Anna’s work and its effects on our thinking. All, by the way, have articles in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Christina’s is “Business Cycles,” Claudia’s is “Gender Gap,” and Michael’s is “Gold Standard.”
I have one main criticism. At the 5:36 point, Claudia Goldin says that our learning from Anna’s and Milton’s work on the monetary causes of the Great Depression helped us avoid the financial crisis of 2007-2008 being even more serious. Not quite. In fact, it was Bernanke’s decision to pour liquidity into the economy with one hand and sterilize it with the other that caused there not to be a big increase in the money supply. Michael Bordo pointed this out at the annual Kansas City Fed meeting at Jackson Hole in 2008 and Jeff Hummel elaborated on it in 2011.
Had they really learned the lesson, Americans would have avoided a lot of pain.
READER COMMENTS
Lawrence H White
Jan 23 2020 at 10:31am
I have one quibble with the video. While Mike Bordo talks about the impact that the Monetary History had on the work of other economists, the screen shows a set of names, presumably economists influenced by the book. The set contains some very odd choices, economists whose work in fact showed no influence from the Monetary History, namely Shiller, Summers, Krugman, Temin, Tobin, Fischer, Diamond and Dybvig, and Bewley.
David Henderson
Jan 23 2020 at 4:14pm
Ooh, I missed that. It went by so fast. Good catch.
Don Boudreaux
Jan 23 2020 at 4:28pm
Nice post.
Although I never really met Anna Schwartz – having seen her a few times only at a distance at a couple of conferences – I nevertheless have Anna Schwartz story.
About ten years ago – two or three years before Anna Schwartz died – I was a patient of a podiatrist in Manhattan. As the MD was examining me, we got to chatting. Turns out that he was an undergrad econ major at Northwestern, and upon learning that I teach economics, he wanted to talk some economics (which I’m always happy to do).
At one point he asked if I’d ever heard of one of his patients – Anna Schwartz. “Of course I have!” I replied. “I’m not a specialist in her branch of economics, but I’ve read some of her writings and respect her very much – as do my monetary-economics friends.”
The MD replied that she’s a lovely lady, but that she can get feisty. “Just a few days ago, when I was examining her feet, I asked her what she thought of Paul Krugman,” the MD told me. He then paused and looked up at me. “Never again will I mention Krugman to her when her foot is within kicking distance of my face. She’s strong!”
David Henderson
Jan 23 2020 at 7:41pm
Great story! Especially the last line.
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