Heller, Walter

Related Category: Economics: Biographies

1915–87, American economist, b. Buffalo, N.Y., grad. Oberlin College (A.B., 1935), Univ. of Wisconsin (M.A. 1938, Ph.D. 1941). He worked for the U.S. Treasury before joining the Univ. of Minnesota faculty in 1946 as a professor of economics. After service as a consultant to the United Nations (1952–60) and to the state of Minnesota (1955–60), he was chairman (1961–64) of the Council of Economic Advisers under President John F. Kennedy. He left the council in 1964 but continued to serve as a consultant to President Lyndon B. Johnson until 1969. Heller advocated deficit spending to spur economic growth, and federal revenue sharing with the states. Heller became a Regent's Professor at the Univ. of Minnesota in 1967; he retired in 1986. His writings include Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy (1969; with Milton Friedman) and The Economy (1976).