Anna Schwartz, RIP
In their work, Ms. Schwartz and [Milton] Friedman argued that mistakes by the Federal Reserve in the 1930s turned the stock-market crash of 1929 into the Great Depression. Ben Bernanke, now chairman of the Fed, has called the 888-page “Monetary History” “the leading and most persuasive explanation of the worst economic disaster in American history.”
Like Mr. Friedman, Ms. Schwartz was a proponent of a school of economics that came to be known as “monetarism,” which insisted that the supply of money in the economy determines economic growth and the rate of inflation. “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” the two famously wrote.
More on Ms. Schwartz’ book in the WSJ.
Rest in peace Ms. Schwartz.
It makes sense that money supply is what determines liquidity and inflation. It’s hard to fathom that 85 years ago economists were oblivious to this fact.
Many nations will ignore monetarist economics to their own peril.
Lived to the ripe old age of 96 – good for her.