Anna Schwartz facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Anna Schwartz
Schwartz in 2007
Born	Anna Jacobson (1915-11-11)November 11, 1915 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	June 21, 2012(2012-06-21) (aged 96) Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Isaac Schwartz (1936–1999; his death) 4 children
Institution	National Bureau of Economic Research
Field	Monetary economics
School or tradition	Chicago school of economics
Alma mater	Barnard College Columbia University
Influences	Milton Friedman
Contributions	Analysis of money Analysis of banking
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Anna Jacobson Schwartz (born November 11, 1915 – died June 21, 2012) was an American economist. An economist studies how money, goods, and services are made, shared, and used. Anna Schwartz worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York City. She also wrote for The New York Times. Many people, like Paul Krugman, called her one of the world's best experts on money.

Schwartz worked with Milton Friedman, who won a Nobel Prize. They wrote a very important book called A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960. This book came out in 1963. It said that the Federal Reserve System was largely to blame for the Great Depression. Robert J. Shiller said their book was the most important explanation of the Great Depression. Anna Schwartz was also the president of the Western Economic Association International in 1988.

In 2013, Anna Schwartz was added to the National Women's Hall of Fame. This honor recognized her important contributions.

Anna Schwartz's Early Life and Education

Anna Jacobson was born on November 11, 1915, in New York City. Her parents were Pauline and Hillel Jacobson. She was a very smart student. She graduated from Barnard College when she was only 18. She then earned her master's degree in economics from Columbia University at 19. She started her career as a professional economist a year later.

In 1936, she married Isaac Schwartz. He was a financial officer and also went to Columbia University. They had four children together. Her first published paper was in 1940. It was about British stock prices. She earned her Ph.D. from Columbia in 1964.

Working at the National Bureau of Economic Research

Anna Schwartz worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a short time. Then she worked at Columbia University. In 1941, she joined the National Bureau of Economic Research. She worked there for the rest of her life. This organization studied business cycles. These are the ups and downs of the economy.

In 1981, she became well-known as the staff director of the U.S. Gold Commission. Even after she had a broken hip and a stroke in 2009, she kept doing careful research. She was named a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association in 1993. She also became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.

Anna Schwartz did not teach much during her career. However, she helped younger researchers a lot. She shared her method of looking closely at the past. This helped them understand history and learn lessons for today.

Studying the British Economy

Anna Schwartz worked with Arthur Gayer and Walt Whitman Rostow. They wrote a huge book called Growth and Fluctuations in the British Economy, 1790–1850. This book looked at how Britain's economy grew and changed. It was published in two volumes in 1953. The Second World War had delayed it for ten years. Today, economic experts still think highly of this book. It was reprinted in 1975.

One of the authors, Gayer, had died before the book came out. The other two authors wrote a new introduction for the reprint. They talked about new ideas that had come out since the book was first published. Schwartz said that her ideas about monetary policy had changed. Monetary policy is how a country's central bank controls the money supply. She also changed her view on interest rates. Interest rates are the cost of borrowing money.

Important Work with Milton Friedman

Anna Schwartz teamed up with another economist, Milton Friedman. They started working together to study how money affects the economy's ups and downs. Their first big book was A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960.

What Caused the Great Depression?

This book suggested that changes in monetary policy greatly affect the economy. It also said that the Federal Reserve System was largely responsible for the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a very bad time for the economy in the 1930s.

The book came out in 1963. They also wrote an important article called "Money and Business Cycles." Later, they wrote two more books: Monetary Statistics of the United States (1970) and Monetary Trends in the United States and the United Kingdom (1982).

The chapter about the Great Depression from A Monetary History was called "The Great Contraction". It was published as a separate book in 1965. In one edition, there's a special note. Ben Bernanke, who used to lead the Federal Reserve, said to Friedman and Schwartz: "Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."

Ideas on Money and Banking

Anna Schwartz changed her mind about how money and banks should be regulated. She believed that stable prices are key for a stable financial system.

She showed that when businesses fail, it doesn't always hurt the whole economy. This is true if the problems don't spread through the financial system. She thought that individual banks should be allowed to fail. They should not be saved with money from taxpayers. In 1981, she became well-known for her work on the U.S. Gold Commission.

Other Research Areas

Anna Schwartz worked on many other topics. She studied how inflation spreads between countries. Inflation is when prices go up and money buys less. She also looked at how governments control money. She studied how banks produce their services. She researched how interest rates behave. She also studied deflation, which is when prices go down. She looked at different monetary standards, which are systems for how money works.

In 2008, she said that government actions like giving money to markets were not the answer to money problems. She also worked outside the United States. She advised a project in London that studied the history of money in the United Kingdom. She gave advice, suggested ideas, and spoke to students and at conferences.

Later Years and Legacy

From 2002 to 2003, she was the president of the International Atlantic Economic Society. In 2007, she was chosen as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. After 2007, she focused on how the U.S. government used its money to affect foreign exchange rates.

She kept talking about economic issues until the financial crisis in the early 2000s. She did not agree with the government's response. For example, she criticized Ben Bernanke for supporting bailouts and keeping interest rates low. She wrote 9 books and over 100 articles during her career.

Personal Life

Anna Schwartz passed away on June 21, 2012, at her home in Manhattan, New York. She was 96 years old. Her husband, Isaac, had died in 1999. They were married for over 60 years. She had four children: Jonathan, Joel, Naomi Pasachoff, and Paula Berggren. She also had seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Her son-in-law was the astronomer Jay Pasachoff.

Awards and Degrees

Anna Schwartz received many honorary degrees from different universities:

• University of Florida (1987)
• Stonehill College, Massachusetts (1989)
• Iona College (1992)
• Rutgers University (1998)
• Emory University (2000)
• City University of New York Graduate Center (2000)
• Williams College (2002)
• Loyola University Chicago, 2003
• City University Business School, London (2006)

Books by Anna Schwartz

• Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 (with Milton Friedman), 1963 ISBN: 0-691-00354-8
• Monetary Statistics of the United States: Estimates, Sources, Methods (with Milton Friedman), 1970 ISBN: 0-87014-210-0
• Growth and Fluctuations in the British Economy, 1790–1850 (with Arthur Gayer and Walt Whitman Rostow), 1953 ISBN: 0-06-492344-4
• Money in Historical Perspective (with an introduction by Michael D. Bordo and Milton Friedman), 1987 ISBN: 0-226-74228-8