author
Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester) Anderson
1886–1949
Best known as a sharp critic of inflation and government intervention, this American economist brought a banker’s eye and a teacher’s clarity to debates about money, business cycles, and the Great Depression. His writing still stands out for its direct, forceful style.
2 Audiobooks
Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and Constructive
by Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester) Anderson
The Value of Money
by Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester) Anderson
About the author
Born in Columbia, Missouri, in 1886, Benjamin McAlester Anderson Jr. studied at the University of Missouri, the University of Illinois, and Columbia University, where he completed his Ph.D. in economics. He began teaching while still young, and his early book Social Value helped establish his reputation as a serious economic thinker.
Anderson later moved between academic life and practical finance. He taught economics at Harvard for a time, then served for years as an economist at Chase National Bank, where he wrote widely read commentary on money, credit, and public policy. After that, he joined UCLA, continuing to write and teach until his death in 1949.
He is often associated with the Austrian tradition in economics, though his work also reflects a broad knowledge of banking and economic history. Readers today often know him for Economics and the Public Welfare, a vivid account of U.S. economic policy from the years around World War I through the 1940s.