Anna Schwartz

• 1. A Girl From The City

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  Anna Jacobson Schwartz entered the world on the 11th of November 1915 in New York City. Her parents were Pauline and Hillel Jacobson. She moved through her early education with remarkable speed. Graduation from Barnard College came at age eighteen when she earned Phi Beta Kappa honors. Columbia University followed quickly for a master's degree in economics by nineteen years old. Professional work began just one year after that academic milestone. Her first marriage to Isaac Schwartz occurred in 1936. He was a financial officer who also graduated from Columbia. They raised four children together over a long union spanning more than sixty years.

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• 2. The Bureau Years Begin

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  Schwartz joined the National Bureau of Economic Research staff in 1941. This organization operated out of an office in New York City where she remained for the rest of her life. Early assignments included brief stints at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Columbia University Social Science Research Council between 1936 and 1941. The bureau focused heavily on studying business cycles during those initial decades. A significant public role emerged in 1981 as staff director of the U.S. Gold Commission. Even physical setbacks like a broken hip and stroke in 2009 did not stop her research output. Distinguished fellow status arrived from the American Economic Association in 1993. Fellowship recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences followed in 2007.

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• 3. British Economy Study

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  Collaboration with Arthur Gayer and Walt Whitman Rostow produced The Growth and Fluctuation of the British Economy, 1790, 1850. Two volumes appeared in print in 1953 after a ten-year delay caused by the Second World War. Scholars still hold this historical study in high regard today. Reprints occurred in 1975 to keep the work accessible. Gayer died before the book first appeared so two other authors wrote a new introduction. They reviewed literature published since the original date and noted an amicable divergence of view regarding some facts. Schwartz revised her own interpretation of interest rate movements based on recent theoretical research. She changed her mind about the importance of monetary policy over time.

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• 4. The Friedman Partnership

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  Milton Friedman joined what became known as the Schwartz team of co-authors years before reprints. Arthur F. Burns prompted their collaboration while serving at Columbia University and the National Bureau. Their joint publication A Monetary History of the United States, 1867, 1960 arrived in 1963. This book placed blame for the Great Depression squarely upon the Federal Reserve System. Robert J. Shiller later called it the most influential account of that economic collapse. A separate chapter titled The Great Contraction received republication as its own book in 1965. Ben Bernanke honored them at a 2002 conference by stating they were right about the causes of the depression. He admitted the Federal Reserve made mistakes but promised they would not repeat those errors thanks to their work.

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• 5. Regulation And Stability

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  Schwartz shifted her opinion on financial regulation during the 1970s and 1980s. Price level stability remained essential for financial system stability according to her studies. Evidence spanning over two centuries showed business failures did not cause major consequences if prevented from spreading through the financial system. Individual institutions should be allowed to fail without taxpayer support. Public recognition came again in 1981 when she served as staff director of the U.S. Gold Commission. Her approach emphasized preventing systemic spread rather than bailing out specific banks. She argued against using government money to rescue failing private entities.

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• 6. Later Work And Critiques

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  From 2002 to 2003 she served as president of the International Atlantic Economic Society. Research concentrated on U.S. official intervention in foreign exchange markets after 2007. Data from the Federal Reserve covered the period starting in 1962. Comments continued until the 2008 financial crisis erupted. She criticized Ben Bernanke's support for bailouts and persistently low interest rates. An op-ed opposed his January 2010 reappointment as Federal Reserve Board chair. She also addressed a critique of Friedman by Paul Krugman. Nine books and over one hundred academic articles marked her career output. Interventions like injecting liquidity into markets were not the answer during credit crises.

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