Lauchlin Bernard Currie

Lauchlin Currie, July 17, 1939

Lauchlin Bernard Currie (born October 8, 1902 in New Dublin , † December 23, 1993 in Bogotá ) was a Canadian-American-Colombian economist.

Life

Lauchlin Bernard Currie was the son of the teacher Alice Eisenhauer Currie and the commercial shipping company Lauchlin Bernard Currie († 1906). After the father's death in 1906, the family moved to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia , where Currie attended school. He then went to schools in Massachusetts and California where he had relatives. From 1922 to 1924 he studied at Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and then attended the London School of Economics and Political Science , where he had lessons from Edwin Cannan , Hugh Dalton , Arthur Lyon Bowley and Harold Laski . He then studied at Harvard University , with Allyn Abbott Young , who was before the American Economic Association at this time. In 1931 he received his doctorate from Harvard with a dissertation on banking theory.

Early working life

Until 1934 Currie worked at Harvard as a lecturer and assistant, successively under Ralph Hawtrey, John H. Williams, and Joseph Schumpeter. Paul Sweezy was one of his listeners on money and banking at Harvard. In 1934 he postulated a connection between the amount of money and the velocity of money for the United States. He blamed the US government's commercial loan theory for the liquidity problems in mid-1929, when economic growth was already declining. As a result of the economic policy passivity in the next four years, he also saw the US government responsible for the massive insolvencies and bank failures. Instead, he advocates a control over the money supply to stabilize income and expenditure.

In January 1932, in a memorandum with Harvard colleagues Harry Dexter White and Paul Theodore Ellsworth, he called for state investment, even if budget deficits were increased, in connection with open market policy, as well as the lifting of tariffs and the alleviation of inter-allied debts.

Freshman brain trust

1934 Currie was naturalized in the United States and joined the freshman brain trust of Jacob Viner at which the US Treasury advised. Here he outlined his ideal of a monetary system for the United States, fractional reserve banking with a minimum reserve and extensive control by a central bank, which prevents the member banks from creating negative money by repaying their liabilities from savings deposits.

In 1934, Marriner S. Eccles moved from the Treasury Department to chair the Federal Reserve System , taking Lauchlin Currie with him as his secretary. Harry Dexter White of the Freshman Brain Trust became an advisor to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, and for a number of years White and Currie played each other in their respective roles in the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. Currie drafted the 1935 Banking Act, which reorganized the Federal Reserve and expanded its powers. He supported the theory of the net federal income-creating expenditure series , which showed the important role of fiscal policy as a complement to monetary policy in reviving economic growth during the depression of the time.

In 1937, after four years of boom, economic growth slowed again. In a four-hour conversation, he explained to Franklin D. Roosevelt that the stated goal of a balanced budget to regain the confidence of business owners would harm economic development. This was seen as part of the rivalry for Roosevelt's advisory favor against the backdrop of the cautious Henry Morgenthau and the expansionist Marriner S. Eccles . In April 1938, Roosevelt brought an amendment to the budget that provided for government aid and investment. In May 1939, Currie as Mr. Inside and Alvin Hansen as Mr. Outside presented the role of public deficits in overcoming economic crises at a hearing before the Temporary National Economic Committee .

Economic advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt

In July 1939, Roosevelt appointed Currie to be his economic advisor on taxation, social security and the expansion of economic plans in times of peace and war. In January 1941 he was sent on a mission to China to Chiang Kai-shek and Chou En-lai . After his return in March, he recommended that China be included in the lending and leasing law . He was subordinate to Harry Hopkins .

Currie was also assigned to look after the American Volunteer Group . In May 1941, he submitted an application for funding and delivery of aircraft for the Sino-Japanese War at the George C. Marshall and the Joint War Board. The motion letter, approved by the Board of Directors, highlighted the role of an Air Force in China to defend Singapore, Burma Road and the Philippines in a Japanese attack. He also pointed out the possibility of strategic bombing of targets in Japan. These activities and his support for sanctions against Japan were confrontational.

In July 1942, Currie came to Chungking and tried to ease the tension between Chiang Kai-shek and Joseph Stilwell . Currie was one of several of Roosevelt's envoys who recommended the recall of Stilwell, who remained in office through October 1944 with the support of General Marshall.

Currie appears to have been commissioned by Roosevelt to deliver decryption baits to the Soviet cryptographic service.

From 1943 to 1944, Currie headed the Foreign Economic Administration . In this function, he recruited well-known or emerging economists or recommended them to other government agencies. The economists included B. John Kenneth Galbraith , Richard Vincent Gilbert, Adlai Stevenson, and William O'Dwyer .

He was involved in loan negotiations with British and Soviet government officials and in the preparations for the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference .

In early 1945, Currie led a mission from Operation Safehaven (1944-48) with the British and French in Bern, which during the economic war convinced the Swiss authorities and companies to freeze bank balances of the National Socialists and prevent deliveries to German troops in Italy.

Allegations of clearing up for the Soviet Union

1939 identified Whittaker Chambers against Adolf A. Berle Currie as a Soviet agent.

Currie was blamed for Mao Zedong's victory in China.

In 1948, the defected Soviet spy Elizabeth Bentley declared that Currie and Harry Dexter White had been part of the Silvermaster Ring , whereupon White and Currie were summoned to the Un-American Activities Committee in August 1948 and had to testify there. The results of the VENONA project confirmed this information and, as evidenced by the testimony of Gaik Ovakimian , Harry Dexter White was able to prove the espionage in favor of the Soviet Union . He died of a myocardial infarction .

In 1949, Currie produced a comprehensive economic study on Colombia for the World Bank . In 1950 the Colombian government commissioned him to advise them on how to implement the recommendations of his study. In December 1952, Currie testified in a lawsuit against Owen Lattimore .

In 1954 the US embassy in Bogota under Rudolf Emil Schoenfeld (1895–1981) refused to issue a US passport. So he stayed in Colombia, where La Violencia was taking place at the time .

Honors

In 1989 Laurie Bernard Currie, together with Otto Königsberger , Hassan Fathy and Habitat for Humanity, received the prestigious UN Habitat Scroll of Honor, which the United Nations (UN) has awarded since 1989 for exceptional achievements in urban and housing construction ( United Nations program for human settlements ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Vincent Gilbert
2. ^ Carl Adolf Maschke, Peace Feeler: The German Mediation in the Sino-Japanese Conflict 1931-1941 , Munich 1980, p. 249