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{{Short description|American economist (1886–1949)}}
{{Other people}}
{{More citations needed|biography|date=July 2014}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox economist
| name = Benjamin Anderson
| school_tradition = [[Austrian School of Economics|Austrian School]]
| image = Benjamin McAlester Anderson Jr. (1886–1949).png
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|05|01}}
| birth_place = [[Columbia, Missouri]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|1|19|1886|5|1}}
| death_place = [[Santa Monica, California]], U.S.
| institution =
| field = [[Economics]]
| alma_mater =
| influences = [[Ludwig von Mises]]
| contributions =
| awards =
| signature = 
}}

'''Benjamin McAlester Anderson Jr.''' (May 1, 1886 – January 19, 1949) was an American [[economics|economist]] of the [[Austrian School]].<ref>{{cite journal |author= |title= DR. B. M. Anderson, Economist, is Dead: Professor of Banking at UCLA, Had Served Chase National Bank - Author of Many Books |journal = The New York Times |date= January 20, 1949 |page= 27}}; {{cite journal |author= |title= Benjamin M. Anderson |journal = The New York Times |date= January 20, 1949 |page= 26 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/01/20/archives/benjamin-m-anderson.html}}</ref><ref name="Hazlitt" />

==Early life and education==
Benjamin Anderson was born in [[Columbia, Missouri]] on May 1, 1886, to Benjamin McLean Anderson, a businessman and politician, and Mary Frances Anderson (née Bowling).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-6Q_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA606 |title=The Alumni Record of the University of Illinois |editor-first=James Herbert |editor-last=Kelley |publisher=[[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]] |page=606 |date=1913 |access-date=2023-05-03 |via=Google Books}}</ref> When he was sixteen years old, Anderson enrolled in classes at the [[University of Missouri]] in his hometown and earned his [[Bachelor of Arts|A.B.]] in 1906. After receiving his bachelor's degree, Anderson accepted an appointment as professor of political economy and sociology at [[Missouri Valley College]], where he remained for a year before becoming head of the department of political economy and sociology at the State Normal School (later known as [[Missouri State University]]) in [[Springfield, Missouri]].

Anderson soon became a degree-seeking student again, this time pursuing his [[Master of Arts|A.M.]] from the [[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]]. He completed his master's degree in 1910 and finished his [[Ph.D.]] at [[Columbia University]] only a year later. Part of his dissertation was later published as ''Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and Constructive''.<ref name="Thornton">[[Mark Thornton|Thornton, Mark]]. [https://www.mises.org/content/benand.asp "Who is Benjamin Anderson?"] ''Mises.org''</ref>

==Career==
After earning his doctoral degree, Anderson taught at [[Columbia University]] and then [[Harvard University]].<ref name="Thornton" /> During this time, he wrote his ''Value of Money'', a critique of the [[quantity theory of money]].<ref name="Herbener">{{Cite web|url=https://mises.org/library/value-money|title=The Value of Money|date=August 11, 2000|website=Mises Institute}}</ref> He left Harvard to join [[New York City]]'s National Bank of Commerce in 1918.

He remained with NBC for only two years, however, before [[Chase National Bank]] hired him as an economist and as the new editor of the bank's ''Chase Economic Bulletin''. It was during this time that the scope of Anderson's writing widened to include:
{{Blockquote|...articles critical of progressive policy in such diverse areas as money, credit, international economic policy, agriculture, taxation, war, government debt, and economic planning. He was a leading opponent of the [[New Deal]] and an enthusiastic supporter of a free market [[gold standard]].<ref name="Thornton" />}}

In 1939, Anderson again entered the academic community, this time as a professor of economics at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]]. He held this position until his death (from a heart attack) at [[Santa Monica Hospital]] on January 19, 1949.<ref name="Thornton" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-ucla-professor-dies-following/123999189/ |title=UCLA professor dies following heart attack |newspaper=[[Illustrated Daily News|Daily News]] |publication-place=Los Angeles |page=8 |date=1949-01-19 |access-date=2023-05-03 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Academic influence==
[[Henry Hazlitt]], who is often cited as having popularized Austrian economics in the English-speaking world, credits Anderson with acquainting him with the work of [[Ludwig von Mises]] and other Austrians. Explains Hazlitt:

{{Blockquote|I was very lucky in my friendships and lucky in the books I chose. I read a book by Benjamin M. Anderson, whom I later got to know. This was his 1917 book ''The Value of Money''. He was an acute critic of nearly all other writers on money, and especially of [[Irving Fisher]] and his mechanical quantity theory of money. Mac Anderson read German, and discussed many German writers on money. He referred to the German edition of Ludwig von Mises's ''[[The Theory of Money and Credit|Theory of Money and Credit]]'' and wrote: "In von Mises there seems to me to be very noteworthy clarity and power. His ''Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel'' is an exceptionally excellent book." That impressed me.<ref name="Hazlitt">[https://www.mises.org/journals/aen/aen5_1_1.asp "An Interview with Henry Hazlitt"]. ''Austrian Economics Newsletter''. [[Mises Institute]]. Spring 1984.</ref>}}

According to Mises, Anderson was "one of the outstanding characters in this age of the supremacy of time-servers."<ref name="Thornton" />

Outside of Austrian circles, though, Anderson's writings encountered a cooler reception from the then-dominant [[Progressivism|Progressives]], who disagreed with his calls for reducing government intervention in the market.<ref name="Thornton" /> According to Henry Hazlitt, Anderson was dismayed by the popular political and theoretical trends that ran counter to the positions that he espoused:

{{Blockquote|[H]e did become embittered. I remember he was at my house when [[Alf Landon|Landon]] was running for President against [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|FDR]]. As the radio returns came rolling in, Mac shook his head and said, "This is the mob." He was very depressed, but I don't think his writing was ever bitter. It remained analytical and objective.<ref name="Hazlitt" />}}

==Personal life==
Anderson was a skilled [[chess]] player and penned the preface to [[José Raúl Capablanca]]'s ''A Primer of Chess'' (1935).

==Publications==
* ''Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory Critical and Constructive'' (1911)
* [https://www.mises.org/books/valuemoney.pdf ''The Value of Money''] (1917)
* ''Effects of the War on Money, Credit and Banking in France and the U.S.'' (1919)
* [http://library.mises.org/books/Benjamin%20Anderson/Cheap%20Money,%20Gold,%20and%20the%20Federal%20Reserve%20Bank%20Policy.pdf "Cheap Money, Gold, and Federal Reserve Bank Policy"] (1924). ''Chase Economic Bulletin'', Vol. IV, No. 3, August 4, 1924
* [https://mises.org/Books/economics_public_welfare_anderson.pdf ''Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914–1946''] (1949)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* Blanchette, Jude. [https://www.mises.org/journals/jls/19_1/19_1_3.pdf "Anderson, Hazlitt, and the Quantity Theory of Money"]. ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]''. Vol. 19–1. Winter 2005.
* [[Richard Ebeling|Ebeling, Richard]]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310071051/http://www.fff.org/freedom/0497b.asp|title="Benjamin Anderson and the False Goal of Price-Level Stabilization"|date=March 10, 2007}}. ''Monetary Central Planning and the State''. Future of Freedom Foundation. April 1997.
* University of California. [http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb167nb08j&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00001&toc.depth=1&toc.id= Biographical information on Benjamin Anderson]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=37258}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Benjamin McAlester Anderson |sopt=t}}
* {{Find a Grave|85626150|Benjamin McAlester Anderson}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Benjamin}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:Austrian School economists]]
[[Category:Economists from Missouri]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty]]
[[Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni]]
[[Category:University of Missouri alumni]]
[[Category:People from Columbia, Missouri]]
[[Category:20th-century American economists]]

Benjamin Anderson - Revision history

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