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'''Lauchlin Bernard Currie''' (October 8, 1902 – December 23, 1993) was an [[economist]] who worked as [[White House]] economic adviser to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]] during [[World War II]] (1939–45). From 1949 to 1953, he directed a major [[World Bank]] mission to [[Colombia]] and related studies.
'''Lauchlin Bernard Currie''' (8 October 1902-23 December 1993) was a Canadian government [[economist]] who became [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt's]] chief economic advisor during [[World War II]]. After Roosevelt's death, he directed a [[World Bank]] mission to [[Colombia]] and eventually settled there, becoming an economic advisor to a series of Colombian presidential administrations. This move, however, was not entirely voluntarily, as the United States had refused to renew his passport in 1954 (he was a naturalized citizen). It is likely that this occurred because he had been named by two Soviet defectors and in nine partially decrypted cables sent by Soviet agents, but he was never prosecuted and debate remains around his level of conscious involvement.


==Childhood and education==
Information from the [[Venona project]], a counter-intelligence program undertaken by agencies of the United States government, references Currie in nine partially decrypted cables sent by agents of the [[Soviet Union|USSR]]; testimony by former Communist agents supported the view that he was a Soviet asset.
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Currie was born on 8 October 1902 in [[West Dublin, Nova Scotia]] to Lauchlin Bernard Currie, an operator of a fleet of merchant ships, and Alice Eisenhauer Currie, a schoolteacher. After his father died in 1906, his family moved to nearby [[Bridgewater, Nova Scotia]], where most of his schooling took place.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Currie, Lauchlin (1902-1993) |encyclopedia=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |date=2018 |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=9781349951895 |doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_66}}</ref>


Currie had begun to demonstrate studious habits (like reading late into the night) by the time his family moved to [[Massachusetts]], but he drove automobiles "with his foot on the floor board" for relaxation.<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer--> |date=1941 |title=Apostle of Spending |url=https://archive.org/details/apostle-of-spending.-nations-business-vol.-29-no.-8-august-1941-pp.-48 |journal=Nation’s Business |volume=29 |issue=8 |pages=48+ |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref> He also attended school in [[California]], where he had relatives.
Born a Canadian citizen, Currie became a [[Naturalization|naturalized]] American citizen in 1934. Despite his citizenship, the United States refused to renew his [[passport]] in 1954 due to doubts over his loyalty to the country, and he became a Colombian citizen in 1958.


After two years at [[Saint Francis Xavier University]] in Nova Scotia, he moved to the [[United Kingdom]] in 1922 to study at the [[London School of Economics]] under [[Edwin Cannan]], [[Hugh Dalton]], [[A. L. Bowley]], and [[Harold Laski]]. He earned a PhD from [[Harvard University]] in 1931, with his dissertation on banking theory.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1931 |title=Bank Assets and Banking Theory |degree=PhD |publisher=Harvard University |oclc=76981630}}</ref> He was heavily influenced by his Harvard mentor [[Allyn Abbott Young]] (then president of the [[American Economic Association]]), and Currie's final paper--on Youngian [[endogenous growth theory]]--was posthumously published in 1997.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Currie |first1=Lauchlin |last2=Sandilands |first2=Roger J. |date=1997 |title=Implications of an Endogenous Theory of Growth in Allyn Young's Macroeconomic Concept of Increasing Returns |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=413-443 |doi=10.1215/00182702-29-3-413}}</ref>
==Formative years==
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He was born to Lauchlin Bernard Currie, an operator of a fleet of merchant ships, and Alice Eisenhauer Currie, a schoolteacher. After his father died in 1906, when Currie was four, his family moved to nearby [[Bridgewater, Nova Scotia]] where most of his schooling took place.

By the time his family moved to [[Massachusetts]] he had begun to demonstrate his studious habits and often read late into the night. For relaxation he drove automobiles "with his foot on the floor board."<ref>Staff writer. [[iarchive:apostle-of-spending.-nations-business-vol.-29-no.-8-august-1941-pp.-48|"Apostle of Spending."]] ''[[Nation's Business]]'', vol. 29, no. 8 (August 1941), pp. 48. {{ProQuest|231589459}}.</ref> He also attended school in [[California]], where he had relatives. In 1922, after two years at [[Saint Francis Xavier University]] in Nova Scotia, Currie moved to the [[United Kingdom]] to study at the [[London School of Economics]]<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=1993-12-30 |title=Lauchlin Currie, 91; New Deal Economist Was Roosevelt Aide |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/30/obituaries/lauchlin-currie-91-new-deal-economist-was-roosevelt-aide.html |location=New York}}</ref> under [[Edwin Cannan]], [[Hugh Dalton]], [[A. L. Bowley]], and [[Harold Laski]].

From the LSE, Currie moved to [[Harvard University]], where his chief inspiration was [[Allyn Abbott Young]], then president of the [[American Economic Association]]. At Harvard, he earned his [[Doctorate|Ph.D.]] in 1931 for a dissertation on banking theory.<ref>{{cite thesis |first=Lauchlin B. |last=Currie |title=Bank Assets and Banking Theory |publisher=Harvard University |date=1931 |type=PhD thesis |id={{ProQuest|301837025}} }}</ref>


==Early professional life==
==Early professional life==
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In a January 1932 Harvard [[memorandum]] on anti-Depression policy, Currie and fellow instructors [[Harry Dexter White]] and Paul T. Ellsworth urged large fiscal deficits coupled with [[open market operation]]s to expand bank reserves, as well as the lifting of [[tariff]]s and the relief of interallied debts.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Laidler |first1=David |last2=Sandilands |first2=Robert J. |date=2002 |title=An Early Harvard Memorandum on Anti-Depression Policies: An Introductory Note |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=515-532 |doi=10.1215/00182702-34-3-515}}</ref>
Currie remained at Harvard until 1934 as a lecturer and assistant to, successively, [[Ralph George Hawtrey|Ralph Hawtrey]], John H. Williams, and [[Joseph Schumpeter]]. [[Paul Sweezy]] was one of his students in money and banking at Harvard.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Among his associates in Cambridge was [[Abraham George Silverman]], who would later be revealed as a [[Soviet]] spy for the [[Ware Group]].


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In 1934, Currie constructed the first [[money supply]] and [[income velocity of money|income velocity]] series for the United States. He blamed the government's "commercial loan theory" of banking for monetary tightening in [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|mid-1929]], when the economy was already declining, and then for its passivity during the next four years in the face of mass liquidations and bank failures. Instead, he advocated control of the money supply to stabilize income and expenditures. He cited his colleague and covert Soviet agent [[Abraham George Silverman]] for his "many helpful suggestions and criticisms" in the formation of this line of thinking.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1934 |title=The Failure of Monetary Policy to Prevent the Depression of 1929-32 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1823261 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=145-177 |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref>
In a January, 1932 Harvard [[memorandum]] on antidepression policy, Currie and fellow instructors [[Harry Dexter White]] and [[Paul T. Ellsworth]] urged large fiscal deficits coupled with [[open market operation]]s to expand bank reserves, as well as the lifting of [[tariff]]s and the relief of interallied debts.<ref>Roger Sandilands, 2008. "Currie, Lauchlin (1902–1993)," ''[[The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics]]'', 2nd Edition. [http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000530&q=Lauchlin%20Currie&topicid=&result_number=1 Abstract], dictionaryofeconomics.com; accessed 21 March 2016.</ref>


Currie remained at Harvard until 1934 as a lecturer and assistant to (successively) [[Ralph George Hawtrey]], John H. Williams, and [[Joseph Schumpeter]], and one of his students was [[Paul Sweezy]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |date=2009 |editor-last=Leeson |editor-first=Robert |title=American Power and Policy |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=105-133 |chapter=An Archival Case Study: Revisiting the Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie |doi=10.1057/9780230246140_6 |isbn=9781403949561 |oclc=319211427}}</ref>
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In 1934, Currie constructed the first [[money supply]] and [[Income velocity of money|income velocity]] series for the United States. He blamed the government's "commercial loan theory" of banking for monetary tightening in [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|mid-1929]], when the economy was already declining, and then for its passivity during the next four years in the face of mass liquidations and bank failures. Instead, he advocated control of the money supply to stabilize income and expenditures. Currie cited his colleague and [[Soviet]] agent [[Abraham George Silverman|Silverman]] for his "many helpful suggestions and criticisms" in the formation of this line of thinking.<ref>Currie, Lauchlin. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1823261 "The Failure of Monetary Policy to Prevent the Depression of 1929–32."] ''[[Journal of Political Economy]]'', Vol. 42, No. 2, April 1934, pp. 145–177. {{JSTOR|1823261}}.
::"I am also indebted to ... [[Abraham George Silverman|A. G. Silverman]] for many helpful suggestions and criticisms." (p. 145)</ref><ref>Beckhart, Benjamin Haggot. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2143702 Review of ''The Supply and Control of Money in the United States'' by Laughlin Currie.] ''[[Political Science Quarterly]]'', Vol. 50, No. 3, September 1935, pp. 432-435. {{doi|10.2307/2143702}}. {{JSTOR|2143702}}.</ref>


==New Deal==
==New Deal==


===Freshman brain trust===
===Freshman brain trust===
In 1934, Currie became a naturalized [[United States citizen]] and joined [[Jacob Viner]]'s "freshman brain trust" at the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] where he outlined an ideal monetary system for the United States which included a 100-percent reserve banking plan to strengthen central bank control and prevent bank panics in the future by preventing member banks from lending out their demand deposit liabilities, while removing reserve requirements on savings deposits with low turnover. Later that year, [[Marriner Stoddard Eccles|Marriner Eccles]] moved from the Treasury to become [[Chairman of the Federal Reserve|governor]] of the [[Federal Reserve]] Board. He took Currie with him as his personal assistant. [[Harry Dexter White]], another "freshman brain trust" recruit, became a top adviser to [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.|Henry Morgenthau]], and for some years White and Currie worked closely in their respective roles at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.<ref>Conti-Brown, Peter (2 Mar 2015). [https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/fed_banks_21st_century.pdf "The Twelve Federal Reserve Banks: Governance and Accountability in the 21st Century."] Hutchins Center Working Paper #10. ''[[Brookings Institution]]''.</ref>
In 1934, Currie became a naturalized [[United States citizen]] and joined [[Jacob Viner]]'s "freshman brain trust" at the [[United States Department of the Treasury]], where he outlined an ideal monetary system for the U.S. that included a 100-percent reserve banking plan to strengthen central bank control and prevent bank panics in the future by preventing member banks from lending out their demand deposit liabilities, while removing reserve requirements on savings deposits with low turnover.<ref>{{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1934 |title=The Supply and Control of Money in the United States |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Press |oclc=3103081}}</ref> Later that year, [[Marriner Stoddard Eccles]] left the Treasury to become chairman of the [[Federal Reserve]] and took Currie with him as his personal assistant. Currie's former Harvard colleague Harry White was another "freshman brain trust" recruit who became a top adviser to [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]], and White and Currie worked closely in their respective roles for some years after.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/fed_banks_21st_century.pdf |title=The Twelve Federal Reserve Banks: Governance and Accountability in the 21st Century |last=Conti-Brown |first=Peter |date=2015 |website=Working Paper #10 |publisher=Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>


Soon afterwards, Currie drafted the ''Banking Act of 1935'' which reorganized the Federal Reserve and strengthened its powers. He also constructed a "net federal income-creating expenditure series" to show the strategic role of [[fiscal policy]] in complementing [[monetary policy]] to revive an economy in exceptionally acute, persisting depression. Currie's preferred 100-percent reserve banking idea, however, was not one of the reforms implemented. [[Alan Meltzer]] wrote in his history of the Federal Reserve that "Lauchlin Currie wrote a remarkable memo for a Treasury committee in 1934 emphasizing the role of money in cyclical fluctuations, at a time when virtually no one thought that money mattered."<ref>{{cite web |title=A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 1: 1913-1951 {{!}} Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |url=https://minneapolisfed.org/publications/the-region/a-history-of-the-federal-reserve-volume-1-19131951?sc_device=Default |website=minneapolisfed.org |accessdate=14 June 2018}}</ref> After four years of recovery, the economy declined sharply in 1937. In a four-hour interview with President Roosevelt, he was able to explain that the declared aim of balancing the budget "to restore business confidence" had damaged the economy. This was part of the "struggle for the soul of FDR"<ref>Stein, 1969</ref> between the cautious Morgenthau and the [[Expansionism|expansionist]] Eccles. In April 1938, the president asked [[United States Congress|Congress]] for major appropriations for spending on relief and public works. In May 1939, the rationale was explained in theoretical and statistical detail by Currie ("Mr. Inside") and by Harvard's [[Alvin Hansen]] ("Mr. Outside") in testimony before the Temporary National Economic Committee to highlight the role of government deficits in the recovery process.
Currie drafted the ''Banking Act of 1935'' soon afterwards, which reorganized the Federal Reserve and strengthened its powers. He also constructed a "net federal income-creating expenditure series" to show the strategic role of [[fiscal policy]] in complementing [[monetary policy]] to revive an economy in exceptionally acute, persisting depression. Currie's preferred 100-percent reserve banking idea, however, was not one of the reforms implemented. [[Alan Meltzer]] wrote in his history of the Federal Reserve that "Lauchlin Currie wrote a remarkable memo for a Treasury committee in 1934 emphasizing the role of money in cyclical fluctuations, at a time when virtually no one thought that money mattered."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615032038/https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications/the-region/a-history-of-the-federal-reserve-volume-1-19131951?sc_device=Default |title=A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 1: 1913-1951 |last=Goodfriend |first=Marvin |date=2003 |website=Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>
In 1937, the economy declined sharply after four years of recovery. In a four-hour interview with President Roosevelt, Currie was able to explain that the declared aim of balancing the budget "to restore business confidence" had damaged the economy. This was part of the "struggle for the soul of FDR" between the cautious Morgenthau and the [[Expansionism|expansionist]] Eccles.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stein |first=Herbert |date=1969 |title=The Fiscal Revolution in America |url=https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/780468423 |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226771717}}</ref> In April 1938, President Roosevelt asked [[United States Congress|Congress]] for major appropriations for spending on relief and public works. In May 1939, the rationale was explained in theoretical and statistical detail by Currie ("Mr. Inside") and by Harvard's [[Alvin Hansen]] ("Mr. Outside") in testimony before the Temporary National Economic Committee to highlight the role of government deficits in the recovery process. <!--citation needed-->


===White House===
===White House===
Named FDR's White House economist in July 1939, Currie advised on [[taxation]], [[social security]], and the speeding up of peacetime and wartime production plans.<ref name="fdrlibrary.marist.edu">{{cite web |title=Lauchlin Currie Papers {{!}} Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum |url=http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/collections/franklin/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=106 |website=www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu |accessdate=14 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref> In January 1941, he was sent on a mission to [[China]] for discussions with [[Generalissimo]] [[Chiang Kai-shek]] (representing the [[Kuomintang]]) and [[Zhou Enlai]] (representing the [[Communist Party of China|Communists]]) in the Chinese wartime capital of [[Chongqing]].<ref name="fdrlibrary.marist.edu"/> In an effort to preserve the appearance of American neutrality in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese government paid for the expenses of the trip and paid for Currie's United States government salary.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Coble |first=Parks M. |title=The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek Lost China's Civil War |date=2023 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-29761-5 |location=Cambridge New York, NY |author-link=Parks M. Coble}}</ref>{{Rp|page=13}} On his return in March, he recommended that China be added to the [[lend-lease]] program. He was put in charge of its administration under the overall direction of FDR's special assistant [[Harry Hopkins]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sandilands |first=Rodger James |title=The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie: New Dealer, Presidential Advisor, and Development Economist |date=May 24, 1990 |pages=96–112 |chapter=Chapter 4: In the White House: Peace and War, 1939-45 |isbn=0822310309}}</ref>
Currie was named President Roosevelt's chief White House economist in July 1939 and advised on [[taxation]], [[social security]], and the speeding up of peacetime and wartime production plans. In January 1941, he was sent to [[China]] for discussions with [[Generalissimo]] [[Chiang Kai-shek]] (representing the [[Kuomintang]]) and [[Zhou Enlai]] (representing the [[Communist Party of China]]) in the Chinese wartime capital of [[Chongqing]].<ref>{{cite archive |collection=Lauchlin Bernard Currie papers |collection-url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2779n58h |repository=Hoover Institution Library and Archives |institution=Stanford University |location=Palo Alto |oclc=754871087}}</ref> In an effort to preserve the appearance of American neutrality in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese government paid Currie's expenses and government salary.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coble |first=Parks M. |date=2023 |title=The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-Shek Lost China’s Civil War |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=13 |isbn=9781009297615 |oclc=1348864790}}</ref> He recommended that China be added to the [[lend-lease]] program upon his return in March, and he was put in charge of this program's administration under the overall direction of President's Roosevelt's special assistant [[Harry Hopkins]].<ref name=Sandilands1990>{{cite book |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |date=1990 |title=The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie: New Dealer, Presidential Adviser, and Development Economist |location=Durham |publisher=Duke University Press |pages=96-112 |isbn=9780822310303 |oclc=20852801}}</ref>


Currie was also assigned to expedite the [[Flying Tigers|American Volunteer Group]] (Flying Tigers), which consisted largely of U.S. military pilots released for combat on behalf of China against Japan and technically part of the [[Chinese Air Force]] under the command of [[Claire Chennault]]. Currie also organized a large training program in the United States for Chinese pilots. In May 1941, he presented a paper on Chinese aircraft requirements to [[General]] [[George Marshall|George C. Marshall]] and the Joint War Board. The document, accepted by the Board, stressed the role of an air force in China could play in defending [[Singapore]], the [[Burma Road]], and the [[Philippines]] against Japanese attack. It pointed to its potential for strategic bombing of targets in Japan itself. These activities, together with Currie's work in helping to tighten sanctions against Japan, are said to have played a part in provoking Japan's [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].<ref name=currie>[[Daniel Ford|Ford, Daniel.]] [https://archive.today/20210310122852/https://www.warbirdforum.com/currie.htm "Lauchlin Currie: A Spy at the Heart of the AVG?"] ''The Warbird's Forum''. Archived from [http://www.warbirdforum.com/currie.htm the original.] Retrieved 10 March 2021.</ref>
Currie was also assigned to expedite the [[Flying Tigers]], a voluntary unit of American military pilots released for combat duty on behalf of China against Japan and technically part of the [[Chinese Air Force]] under the command of [[Claire Chennault]] (Currie also organized a large training program in the U.S. for Chinese pilots). In May 1941, he presented a paper on Chinese aircraft requirements to [[General]] [[George C. Marshall]] and the Joint War Board, which they accepted. This paper stressed the role that an air force in China could play in defending [[Singapore]], the [[Burma Road]], and the [[Philippines]] against Japanese attack, as well as the potential for strategic bombing of targets in Japan. These activities, together with his efforts to tighten economic sanctions against Japan, are said to have been partially responsible for provoking Japan's [[attack on Pearl Harbor]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.warbirdforum.com/currie.htm |title=Lauchlin Currie: A Spy at the Heart of the AVG? |last=Ford |first=Daniel |date=2019 |website=The Warbird’s Forum |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>


Currie returned to Chongqing in July 1942 to try to patch up the strained relations between Chiang and General [[Joseph W. Stilwell]], commander of [[Military of the United States|U.S. forces]] in China. Currie was one of several of FDR's envoys who recommended Stilwell's recall and reassignment. Back in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], Roosevelt asked Currie to put his case to General Marshall, but the General dismissed the idea. Only much later did Marshall concede that his protégé's continued presence in China was indeed a mistake. Stilwell was recalled in October 1944.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jiange |first=Arnold Xiangze |title=The United States and China |date=April 6, 1988 |pages=107–112 |chapter=Chapter 7: Aid to Chiang Against Japan |isbn=0226399478}}</ref><!-- He appears to have been involved in carrying out orders from Roosevelt to get U.S. intelligence services to return Soviet [[Cryptography|cryptographic]] documents to the Soviet Union and to cease decoding operations. -- UNSOURCED, SPECULATIVE -->
Currie returned to Chongqing in July 1942 to try to ease strained relations between Kai-shek and General [[Joseph W. Stilwell]], commander of American military forces in China. Currie was one of several presidential envoys who recommended Stilwell's recall and reassignment, but General Marshall refused to do so until October 1944.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jiang |first=Xiangze |date=1988 |title=The United States and China |url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstateschin0000jian_l2a1 |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=107-112 |isbn=9780226399478 |oclc=16901450}}</ref> He also appears to have been involved in carrying out orders from President Roosevelt to get American intelligence services to return Soviet [[cryptography|cryptographic]] documents and cease decoding operations, so as not to upset a wartime ally.


From 1943 to 1944, Currie served as Deputy Administrator for the [[Foreign Economic Administration]] where he played a major role in recruiting or recommending economists and others throughout the Washington administration. Prominent examples are [[John Kenneth Galbraith]], Richard Gilbert, [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]], and [[William O'Dwyer]]. While at the FEA, Currie became a founding member of the [[WAEPA|War Agencies Employees Protective Association]], an organization created to help civilian Federal employees acquire life insurance while serving in war zones. Currie served as WAEPA's first president from May 1943 until his retirement in June 1945.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/item/98511885/ ''Lauchlin Currie, being presented with a silver cigarette case by two men, on his retirement as president of the War Agencies Employees Protective Association''.] [Photograph]. 28 June 1945. Retrieved from the [[Library of Congress]].</ref> In 1944–1945, he was involved in loan negotiations between the United States, British and Soviet allies, and in preparations for the [[United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference|1944 Bretton Woods conference]] (staged mainly by [[Harry Dexter White]]), which led to the creation of the [[International Monetary Fund]] and the [[World Bank]]. In early 1945, Currie headed a tripartite (U.S., British, and [[France|French]]) mission to [[Bern]] to persuade the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] to freeze [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] bank balances and stop further shipments of [[Germany|German]] supplies through Switzerland to the [[Italy|Italian]] front.
From 1943-1944, Currie served as Deputy Administrator of the [[Foreign Economic Administration]], where he recruited or recommended economists and others throughout the federal sector. Prominent examples include [[John Kenneth Galbraith]], Richard Gilbert, [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]], and [[William O'Dwyer]].<!--citation needed--> Currie became a founding member of the [[Worldwide Assurance for Employees of Public Agencies|War Agencies Employees Protective Association]] (created to help civilian federal employees acquire life insurance while serving in warzones) while at the FEA and served as WAEPA's first president from May 1943 until his retirement in June 1945.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/98511885 |title=Lauchlin Currie, being presented with a silver cigarette case by two men, on his retirement as president of the War Agencies Employees Protective Association |author=<!--not stated--> |date=1945 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>


From 1944–1945, Currie was involved in loan negotiations between the U.S. and its British and Soviet allies and in preparations for the [[United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference|1944 Bretton Woods conference]] (staged mainly by Harry White), which led to the creation of the [[International Monetary Fund]] and the [[World Bank]]. In early 1945, Currie headed a tripartite (American, British, and French) mission to [[Bern]] to persuade the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] to freeze [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] bank accounts and stop further shipments of [[Germany|German]] supplies through Switzerland to the [[Italy|Italian]] front.
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In July 1949, Currie headed a nine-man mission (popularly known as the Currie Mission) to Colombia on behalf of the [[International Bank for Reconstruction and Development]] (IBRD). The mission was tasked with assessing the country's economic potentialities and subsequently recommending an integrated program for economic development.


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In July 1949, Currie headed a nine-man mission (known as the Currie Mission) to Colombia on behalf of the [[International Bank for Reconstruction and Development]], which had tasked them with assessing the country's economic potentialities and subsequently recommending an integrated program for economic development.
==Soviet agent==
After the war, Currie was one of those blamed for losing China to the control of Communists. In 1939, Currie had been identified as a Soviet agent by Communist defector [[Whittaker Chambers]] in a meeting with Roosevelt aide [[Adolf A. Berle]].<ref>Allen Weinstein (1978) ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York, Ballantine Books, p. 292</ref> In the spring of 1944, Currie informed Soviet contacts that the United States [[VENONA]] program was about to break the Soviet signals code.<ref name=CIAvenonaCurrie>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm#ft22 |title=Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response 1939-1957 |work=[[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] |date=19 March 2007 |access-date=17 January 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020014536/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm |quote=See paragraph with footnote 22.}}</ref>


==Espionage allegations==
[[Elizabeth Bentley]], like Chambers, a former Soviet espionage agent, later reported in Congressional testimony in 1948 that Currie and Harry Dexter White had been part of the [[FBI Silvermaster File|Silvermaster ring]].<ref name="Schecter">Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'', Potomac Press, 2002</ref> Although she had never met Currie or White in person, Bentley testified to receiving information through [[Agent handling#Fronts and cutouts|cutouts]] (couriers) who were other Washington economists (later determined to be Soviet agents).<ref name="Schecter"/><ref>John E. Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'', Yale University Press (2000)</ref>
Currie was identified as a Soviet agent by Soviet defector [[Whittaker Chambers]] in a 1939 meeting with Roosevelt aide [[Adolf A. Berle]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Weinstein |first=Allen |date=1978 |title=Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case |url=https://archive.org/details/perjuryhisschamb0000wein_f2l2 |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |page=292 |isbn=9780394491769 |oclc=3480930}}</ref>, and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] opened a file on Currie.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://webharvest.gov/peth04/20041015124111/http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/laughlincurrie.htm |title=Lauchlin Currie |author=Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Section |date=2004 |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=2023-12-05}}
⚫
</ref> He informed Soviet contacts in the spring of 1944 that the [[Venona project]] was about to break the Soviet signals code<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Robert Louis |last2=Warner |first2=Michael |date=1996 |title=Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response |url=https://archive.org/details/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957-ocr-1996 |location=Laguna Hills |publisher=Aegean Park Press |pages=51-54 |oclc=36895456 |isbn=9780894122651 |quote=footnote 22}}</ref>, and he was one of those blamed after the war for losing China to the control of Communists.


[[Elizabeth Bentley]], another Soviet defector, testified before the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] in August 1948 and named Currie and Harry Dexter White as part of the [[FBI Silvermaster File|Silvermaster ring]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Loftus |first=Joseph A. |date=1948-08-01 |title=Currie Accused of Helping Spies; A Roosevelt Aide |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/08/01/archives/currie-accused-of-helping-spies-a-roosevelt-aide-miss-bentley-says.html |work=New York Times |location=New York |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref> Although she had never met them in person, she stated that she had received information through [[Agent handling#Fronts and cutouts|cutouts]] (couriers), who were other Washington economists later determined to be Soviet agents.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schecter |first1=Jerrold L. |last2=Schecter |first2=Leona |date=2002 |title=Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History |url=https://archive.org/details/sacredsecretshow0000sche |location=Washington |publisher=Brassey’s |oclc=48375744 |isbn=9781574883275}}</ref> White and Currie responded by asking to appear before the Committee to rebut her charges, and did so later that month.<ref>{{cite report |author=Committee on Un-American Activities |date=1948 |title=Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government |url=https://archive.org/details/hearingsregardin1948unit |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |page=851-877 |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref> White died three days later due to a serious heart problem, and he was later confirmed to be a source of Soviet intelligence in Venona intercepts and the notes of [[NKVD]] official [[Gaik Ovakimian]].
White and Currie appeared before the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] in August 1948 to rebut her charges. White, who was also implicated as a source of Soviet intelligence (later confirmed in Venona intercepts and review of Soviet KGB notes of [[NKVD]] official [[Gaik Ovakimian]]) had a serious heart problem, and died three days after his appearance at the hearings.


Currie was not prosecuted and in 1949 he was appointed to head the first of the World Bank's comprehensive country surveys in [[Colombia]]. After his report was published in Washington in September 1950, he was invited by the Colombian government to return to [[Bogotá]] as adviser to a commission established to implement the report's recommendations. In December 1952, Currie gave evidence in [[New York City|New York]] to a [[grand jury]] investigating [[Owen Lattimore]]'s role in the publication of secret [[United States Department of State|State Department]] documents in ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine.
Currie was never prosecuted, and in July 1949, he was appointed to head a nine-man mission (known as the Currie Mission) to Colombia on behalf of the [[International Bank for Reconstruction and Development]], which had tasked them with assessing the country's economic potentialities and subsequently recommending an integrated program for economic development. After his report was published in September 1950, he was invited by the Colombian government to return to [[Bogotá]] as adviser to a commission established to implement the report's recommendations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1950 |title= The Basis of a Development Program for Colombia |url= |location=Washington |publisher=International Bank for Reconstruction and Development |oclc=5089081}}</ref> In December 1952, he gave evidence in [[New York City|New York]] to a [[grand jury]] investigating [[Owen Lattimore]]'s role in the publication of secret [[United States Department of State|State Department]] documents in ''[[Amerasia]]'' magazine.


However, when Currie tried to renew his U.S. passport in 1954, he was refused on the grounds that he was now residing abroad and married to a Colombian woman.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=1956-03-27 |title=U.S. Citizenship is Lost by Currie |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/03/27/archives/us-citizenship-is-lost-by-currie-former-roosevelt-aide-has-been-out.html |work=New York Times |location=New York |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref> However, he may have been identified by the then-secret Venona project, which had decrypted wartime Soviet cables where he was identified as a source of Soviet intelligence. He appears in these cables under the codename "PAGE", and in Soviet intelligence archives as "VIM" and a source for the [[Jacob Golos|Golos]] and Bentley spy networks.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050429011253/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html |title=Alexander Vassiliev’s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky’s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks |last=Haynes |first=John Earl |date=2005 |website=Historical Writings |access-date= 2023-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hanyok |first=Robert J. |date=2005 |title=Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust |url=https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf |location=Fort Meade |publisher=Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency |oclc=694080390}}</ref>
However, when Currie, as a U.S. citizen, tried to renew his passport in 1954, he was refused, ostensibly on the grounds that he was now residing abroad and married to a Colombian. However, he may have in fact been identified with the then-secret [[Venona project]], which had decrypted wartime Soviet cables where Currie was identified as a source of Soviet intelligence.


Historians [[John Earl Haynes]] and [[Harvey Klehr]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=John Earl |last2=Klehr |first2=Harvey |date=1999 |title=Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America |url=https://archive.org/details/venonadecodingso0000hayn_q9a2 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=43, 145-150, 161 |isbn=9780300077711 |oclc=40396483 |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=John Earl |last2=Klehr |first2=Harvey |date=2003 |title=In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage |url=https://archive.org/details/indenial00john |location=San Francisco |publisher=Encounter Books |page=191 |isbn=9781893554726 |oclc=52258223 |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>, Allen Weinstein<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weinstein |first1=Allen |last2=Vassiliev |first2=Alexander |date=1999 |title=The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era |location=New York |publisher=Random House |pages=161-163 |isbn=9780679457244 |oclc=39051089}}</ref>, and Christopher Andrew<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher M. |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |date=1999 |title=The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB |url=https://archive.org/details/swordshieldmitro00andr |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |page=130 |isbn=9780465003105 |oclc=42368608}}</ref> have concluded that Currie was a Soviet agent. While Currie's biographer Roger J. Sandilands agrees that Currie knew and was connected to individuals who turned out to be Soviet agents, he has disagreed that the evidence is clear that Currie was himself an agent.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |date=2000 |title=Guilt by Association? Lauchlin Currie's Alleged Involvement with Washington Economists in Soviet Espionage |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article/32/3/473/11962 |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=473-515 |doi=10.1215/00182702-32-3-473 |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boughton |first1=James |last2=Sandilands |first2=Roger |date=2003 |title=Politics and the Attack on FDR’s Economists: From the Grand Alliance to the Cold War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684520412331306930 |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=73-99 |doi=10.1080/02684520412331306930 |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |editor1-last=Sandilands |editor1-first=Roger J. |date=2004 |title=Special Issue: New Light on Lauchlin Currie |url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0144-3585/vol/31/iss/3/4 |journal=Journal of Economic Studies |volume=31 |issue=3/4 |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref> Currie was a likely target due to his position in the White House, and he may have unknowingly been an asset.
He appears in the Venona cables under the cover name 'PAGE', and in Soviet intelligence archives as 'VIM' and as a source for the [[Jacob Golos|Golos]] and Bentley spy networks.<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page45.html Vassiliev notes on Soviet KGB archival material] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070721140118/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page45.html |date=2007-07-21 }}</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America: The Stalin Era'', Modern Library Press (2000)</ref>

According to [[John Earl Haynes]] and [[Harvey Klehr]], evidence that Currie cooperated with Soviet espionage is convincing and substantial.<ref>John E. Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism, & Espionage'', Encounter Books (2003) p. 191</ref><ref>John E. Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America", Yale University Press (2000) p. 43, pp. 145-150, p. 161</ref>

Historians Allen Weinstein<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, "The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America", Random House (1999) pp. 161-163</ref> and Christopher Andrew<ref>Christopher Andrew, "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB", Basic Books (1999) p. 130</ref> also conclude Currie was a Soviet asset.


==Colombia==
==Colombia==
After a [[1953 Colombian coup d'état|1953 military coup in Colombia]], Currie took a sabbatical from economic advisory work and devoted himself to raising [[Holstein (cattle)|Holstein cattle]] on a farm outside Bogotá, where he cultivated the highest-yielding dairy herd in the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/10/IASS-Bogota-paper-Working-Paper-216.pdf |title=The Influence of Adam Smith and Allyn Young on Lauchlin Currie’s Advisory Work in Colombia, 1949-93 |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |date=2022 |website=Studies in Applied Economics No. 216 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise |page=11 |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref> With the return of civilian government in 1958, President [[Alberto Lleras]] personally conferred [[Colombian nationality law|Colombian citizenship]] upon Currie, and he returned to advisory work for a series of presidential administrations. His last book was on the role of economic advisors like himself in developing countries.<ref>{{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1982 |title=The Role of Economic Advisers in Developing Countries |url=https://archive.org/details/roleofeconomicad0000curr |location=Westport |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=9780313230646 |oclc=363921934}}</ref>
{{more citations needed|section|date=August 2022}}
After a [[1953 Colombian coup d'état|military coup in Colombia in 1953]], Currie retired from economic advisory work and devoted himself to raising [[Holstein (cattle)|Holstein cattle]] on a farm outside Bogotá, and developed the highest-yielding dairy herd in the country. With the return of civilian government in 1958, President [[Alberto Lleras]] personally conferred [[Colombian nationality law|Colombian citizenship]] upon him, and Currie returned to advisory work for a succession of Colombian presidents.


Between 1966 and 1971, he traveled abroad as a visiting professor in [[North America]]n and British universities: [[Michigan State University|Michigan State]] (1966), [[Simon Fraser University|Simon Fraser]] (1967–1968 and 1969–1971),<ref>[https://www.sfu.ca/ceremonies/print/honorary_degrees/past_honorary_degrees.html Simon Fraser conferred an honorary doctorate to Currie in 1980] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531122826/http://www.sfu.ca/ceremonies/print/honorary_degrees/past_honorary_degrees.html |date=2008-05-31 }}</ref> [[University of Glasgow|Glasgow]] (1968–1969)<ref>Staff writer. "Information Section." ''Bulletin of the Society for Latin American Studies'', no. 10, 1968, pp. 6–10; {{JSTOR|44746630}}.</ref> and [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] (1969). He returned permanently to Colombia in May 1971 at the behest of President [[Misael Pastrana Borrero]] to be the architect of a new "Plan of the Four Strategies", with focus on urban housing and export diversification. The plan was implemented, with new institutions playing a major role in accelerating Colombia's urbanization.
Between 1966-1971, Currie traveled abroad as a visiting professor at North American and British universities: [[Michigan State University]] (1966), [[Simon Fraser University]] (1967–1968 and 1969–1971)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sfu.ca/convocation/honorary-degrees/past_honorary_degrees.html |title=Past Honorary Degree Recipients |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2023 |website=Simon Fraser University |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>, the [[University of Glasgow]] (1968–1969)<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1968 |title=Information Section |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44746630 |journal=Bulletin of the Society for Latin American Studies |issue=10 |page=7 |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref>, and the [[University of Oxford]] (1969). He returned permanently to Colombia in May 1971 at the behest of President [[Misael Pastrana Borrero]] to be the architect of a new "Plan of the Four Strategies" with a focus on urban housing and export diversification. The plan was implemented, and new institutions played a major role in accelerating Colombia's urbanization.


Currie was chief economist at the Colombian National Planning Department from 1971 to 1981, followed by twelve years at the Colombian Institute of Savings and Housing until his death in 1993. There he doggedly defended the unique housing finance system (based on "units of constant purchasing power" for both savers and borrowers) established in 1972. The system significantly boosted Colombia's growth.
From 1971-1981, Currie was chief economist at the Colombian National Planning Department, followed by 12 years at the Colombian Institute of Savings and Housing until his death. He defended the unique housing finance system established in 1972, which was based on "units of constant purchasing power" for both savers and borrowers. This system significantly boosted Colombia's growth.


Currie advised on urban planning and played a major part in the first [[United Nations]] [[United Nations Human Settlements Programme|Habitat]] conference in [[Vancouver]] in 1976. His "cities-within-the-city" urban design and financing proposals (including the [[Value capture|public recapture]] of land's socially created "valorización" or "unearned land value increments" as cities grow) were explained in ''Taming the Megalopolis'' published in 1976. He was also a professor at the [[National University of Colombia]], the [[Pontificia Universidad Javeriana|Javeriana University]], and the [[University of the Andes (Colombia)|University of the Andes]].
He also advised on urban planning and was an organizer of the first [[United Nations]] [[United Nations Human Settlements Programme|Habitat]] conference in 1976.<ref>{{cite conference |title=Urbanization: Some Basic Issues |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1976 |location=Vancouver |conference=Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements |oclc=6978054}}</ref> He detailed his "cities-within-the-city" urban design and financing proposals (including the [[Value capture|public recapture]] of land's socially created "valorización" or "unearned land value increments" as cities grow) in ''Taming the Megalopolis''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1976 |title=Taming the Megalopolis: A Design for Urban Growth |url=https://archive.org/details/tamingmegalopoli0000curr |location=Oxford |publisher=Pergamon Press |isbn=9780080209807 |oclc=2089594}}</ref> He was also a professor at the [[National University of Colombia]], the [[Pontificia Universidad Javeriana|Javeriana University]], and the [[University of the Andes (Colombia)|University of the Andes]].


In 1993, President [[César Gaviria]] awarded Currie the [[Order of Boyaca]] (Colombia's highest peacetime decoration)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wiki3.es-es.nina.az/Orden_de_Boyac%C3%A1.html |title=Order of Boyacá |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2021 |website=nina.az |access-date=2023-12-06}}</ref> one day before Currie's death from a heart attack.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=1993-12-30 |title=Lauchlin Currie, 91; New Deal Economist Was Roosevelt Aide |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/30/obituaries/lauchlin-currie-91-new-deal-economist-was-roosevelt-aide.html |location=New York |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref>
His writings were heavily influenced by his Harvard mentor Allyn Young. An important paper on Youngian [[endogenous growth theory]] was published [[Posthumous work|posthumously]] in ''History of Political Economy ''(1997).


==Additional publications==
President [[César Gaviria]] awarded Currie Colombia's highest peacetime decoration, the [[Order of Boyaca]], on the day before Currie's death.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

==Death==
Currie died on December 23, 1993, aged 91, of a [[heart attack]] in [[Bogota, Colombia]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Lauchlin Currie, 91. "New Deal Economist Was Roosevelt Aide" |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D8123FF933A05751C1A965958260 |quote= Lauchlin Currie, an economist who helped shape the New Deal during the Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, died last Thursday at his home in Bogota, Colombia. He was 91. The cause was a heart attack, said Juan Carlos Guerrero, an associate. |work=[[New York Times]] |date=December 30, 1993 |accessdate=2008-05-31 }}</ref>

==Publications==
'''Books'''
'''Books'''
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1934 |title=The Supply and Control of Money in the United States |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Press |oclc=3103081}}
* A 1968 reissue of ''The Supply and Control of Money in the United States'' includes an essay on Currie's contribution to [[monetary theory]] by [[Karl Brunner (economist)|Karl Brunner]]. {{oclc|310482019}}.
** His influential early work on monetary theory and policy, based on his 1931 PhD thesis ''Bank Assets and Banking Theory''.{{oclc|
76981630}}. A 1968 reissue includes an essay on Currie's contribution to [[monetary theory]] by [[Karl Brunner (economist)|Karl Brunner]]. {{oclc|310482019}}.
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1950 |title= The Basis of a Development Program for Colombia |url= |location=Washington |publisher=International Bank for Reconstruction and Development |oclc=5089081}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1961 |title=Operación Colombia un programa nacional de desarrollo económico y social |location=Bogotá |publisher= Sociedad Colombiana de Economistas |oclc=948842148}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1961 |title=Operación Colombia un programa nacional de desarrollo económico y social |location=Bogotá |publisher= Sociedad Colombiana de Economistas |oclc=948842148}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1966 |title=Accelerating Development: The Necessity and the Means |url=https://archive.org/details/acceleratingdeve0000curr |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill |oclc=330897}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1966 |title=Accelerating Development: The Necessity and the Means |url=https://archive.org/details/acceleratingdeve0000curr |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill |oclc=330897}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1967 |title=Obstacles to Development |url=https://archive.org/details/obstaclestodevel0000curr |location=East Lansing |publisher=Michigan State University Press |oclc=188221}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1967 |title=Obstacles to Development |url=https://archive.org/details/obstaclestodevel0000curr |location=East Lansing |publisher=Michigan State University Press |oclc=188221}}
* {{cite book |last1=Larsson |first1=Yngve Gustaf Rickard |last2=Wolff |first2=Peter de |last3=Currie |first3=Lauchlin |date=1967 |title=Governmental Planning and Political Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/governmentalplan0000lars |location=Berkeley |publisher=Institute of Business and Economic Research, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley |oclc=873600}}
* {{cite book |last1=Larsson |first1=Yngve Gustaf Rickard |last2=Wolff |first2=Peter de |last3=Currie |first3=Lauchlin |date=1967 |title=Governmental Planning and Political Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/governmentalplan0000lars |location=Berkeley |publisher=Institute of Business and Economic Research, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley |oclc=873600}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1976 |title=Taming the Megalopolis: A Design for Urban Growth |url=https://archive.org/details/tamingmegalopoli0000curr |location=Oxford |publisher=Pergamon Press |isbn=9780080209807 |oclc=2089594}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1982 |title=The Role of Economic Advisers in Developing Countries |url=https://archive.org/details/roleofeconomicad0000curr |location=Westport |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=9780313230646 |oclc=363921934}}
* {{cite book |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1982 |title=The Role of Economic Advisers in Developing Countries |url=https://archive.org/details/roleofeconomicad0000curr |location=Westport |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=9780313230646 |oclc=363921934}}


Line 110: Line 94:
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1933 |title=Treatment of Credit in Contemporary Monetary Theory |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1822874 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=58-79 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1933 |title=Treatment of Credit in Contemporary Monetary Theory |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1822874 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=58-79 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1933 |title=Money, Gold, and Income in the United States, 1921-32 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1884797 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=77-95 |doi=10.2307/1884797 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1933 |title=Money, Gold, and Income in the United States, 1921-32 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1884797 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=77-95 |doi=10.2307/1884797 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1934 |title=The Failure of Monetary Policy to Prevent the Depression of 1929-32 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1823261 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=145-177 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1935 |title=The Supply and Control of Money: A Reply to Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1885406 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=694-704 |doi=10.2307/1885406 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1935 |title=The Supply and Control of Money: A Reply to Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1885406 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=694-704 |doi=10.2307/1885406 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1950 |title=Some Prerequisites for Success of the Point Four Program |journal=The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=270 |issue=1 |pages=102-108 |doi=10.1177/000271625027000114 |access-date=}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1950 |title=Some Prerequisites for Success of the Point Four Program |journal=The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=270 |issue=1 |pages=102-108 |doi=10.1177/000271625027000114 |access-date=}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1975 |title=The Interrelations of Urban and National Economic Planning |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43080826 |journal=Urban Studies |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=37-46 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1975 |title=The Interrelations of Urban and National Economic Planning |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43080826 |journal=Urban Studies |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=37-46 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite web |url=https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/author/currie-lauchlin-bernard |title=Currie, Lauchlin Bernard |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite web |url=https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/author/currie-lauchlin-bernard |title=Currie, Lauchlin Bernard |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis |access-date=2023-12-05}}

'''Conference papers'''
* {{cite conference |title=Urbanization: Some Basic Issues |last=Currie |first=Lauchlin |date=1976 |location=Vancouver |conference=Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements |oclc=6978054}}


'''Archival collections'''
'''Archival collections'''
* {{cite archive |collection=Lauchlin B. Currie papers |collection-url=https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1m90z |repository=David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library |institution=Duke University |location=Durham |oclc=39100493}}
* {{cite archive |collection=Lauchlin B. Currie papers |collection-url=https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1m90z |repository=David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library |institution=Duke University |location=Durham |oclc=39100493}}
* {{cite archive |collection=Lauchlin Bernard Currie papers |collection-url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2779n58h |repository=Hoover Institution Library and Archives |institution=Stanford University |location=Palo Alto |oclc=754871087}}
**Emphasis on papers related to China and military operations in the [[China-Burma-India Theater]].


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


==Further reading==
==External links==
⚫
* {{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Robert Louis |last2=Warner |first2=Michael |date=1996 |title=Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response |url=https://archive.org/details/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957-ocr-1996 |location=Laguna Hills |publisher=Aegean Park Press |pages=51-54 |oclc=36895456 |isbn=9780894122651}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Boughton |first1=James |last2=Sandilands |first2=Roger |date=2003 |title=Politics and the Attack on FDR’s Economists: From the Grand Alliance to the Cold War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684520412331306930 |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=73-99 |doi=10.1080/02684520412331306930 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite report |author=Committee on Un-American Activities |date=1948 |title=Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government |url=https://archive.org/details/hearingsregardin1948unit |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |page=851-877 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite archive |item=File card of Patterson contacts in regard to Silvermaster |series=Under Secretary of War Files |file=Card indices, 9 March 1941-31 December 1943, Re-Str |box=202 |collection=Robert Porter Patterson papers |collection-url=https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms014014 |repository=Manuscript Division |institution=Library of Congress |location=Washington |oclc= 74984701 }}
* {{cite archive |item=File card of Patterson contacts in regard to Silvermaster |series=Under Secretary of War Files |file=Card indices, 9 March 1941-31 December 1943, Re-Str |box=202 |collection=Robert Porter Patterson papers |collection-url=https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms014014 |repository=Manuscript Division |institution=Library of Congress |location=Washington |oclc= 74984701 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://webharvest.gov/peth04/20041015124111/http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/laughlincurrie.htm |title=Lauchlin Currie |author=Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Section |date=2004 |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=2023-12-05}} The FBI's declassified file on Currie in four parts.
* {{cite book |last=Hanyok |first=Robert J. |date=2005 |title=Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust |url=https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf |location=Fort Meade |publisher=Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency |oclc=694080390}}
** "Currie, known as PAZh (Page) and [[Harry Dexter White|White]], whose cover names were YuRIST (Jurist) and changed later to LAJER (Lawyer), had been used as sources of information by Soviet agents since the 1930s, though there has been much dispute as to whether their involvement was witting or otherwise. They had been identified as Soviet sources in [[Venona]] translations and by other agents turned witnesses or informants for the FBI and Justice Department. From the Venona translations, both were known to have been sources of information for their so-called "handlers", notably the [[Greg Silvermaster#Silvermaster group|Silvermaster network]]."
* {{cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=John Earl |last2=Klehr |first2=Harvey |date=2000 |title=Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America |url=https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/48138420 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780585378923}}
* {{cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=John Earl |last2=Klehr |first2=Harvey |date=2003 |title=In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage |url=https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/in-denial/ |location=San Francisco |publisher=Encounter Books |oclc=52258223 |isbn=9781893554726}}
* {{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050429011253/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html |title=Alexander Vassiliev’s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky’s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks |last=Haynes |first=John Earl |date=2005 |website=Historical Writings |access-date= 2023-12-05}}
⚫
* {{cite journal |last1=Laidler |first1=David |last2=Sandilands |first2=Robert J. |date=2002 |title=An Early Harvard Memorandum on Anti-Depression Policies: An Introductory Note |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=515-532 |doi=10.1215/00182702-34-3-515}}
* {{cite web |url=https://enciclopedia.banrepcultural.org/index.php/Lauchlin_Currie |title=Lauchlin Currie |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2021 |website=La Enciclopedia Banrepcultural |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite web |url=https://enciclopedia.banrepcultural.org/index.php/Lauchlin_Currie |title=Lauchlin Currie |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2021 |website=La Enciclopedia Banrepcultural |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Ronnie J. |date=1995 |title=The Chicago Plan and New Deal Banking Reform |url=https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/30544146 |location=Armonk |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=9781563244698}}
* {{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Ronnie J. |date=1995 |title=The Chicago Plan and New Deal Banking Reform |url=https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/30544146 |location=Armonk |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=9781563244698}}
* {{cite book |last=Poznyakov |first=Vladimir |date=2003 |title=Cold War in Retrospective |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320191858/http://usatruth.by.ru/c2.files/holodnajavojna9.htm |location=Moscow |publisher=OLMA-Press |pages=321-368 |chapter=Intelligence, Information and Political Decision Making Process: the Turning Points of the Early Cold War Period, 1944-1953}}
* {{cite book |last=Poznyakov |first=Vladimir |date=2003 |title=Cold War in Retrospective |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320191858/http://usatruth.by.ru/c2.files/holodnajavojna9.htm |location=Moscow |publisher=OLMA-Press |pages=321-368 |chapter=Intelligence, Information and Political Decision Making Process: the Turning Points of the Early Cold War Period, 1944-1953}}
* {{cite book |last=Rafalko |first=Frank J. |date=2004 |chapter=Cold War Counterintelligence |title=A Counterintelligence Reader |url=https://permanent.fdlp.gov/lps54742/counterintelligencereader/ci/docs/ci3/index.html |volume=3 |location=Washington |publisher=National Counterintelligence Center |pages=31-33 |oclc=466390088}}
* {{cite book |last=Rafalko |first=Frank J. |date=2004 |chapter=Cold War Counterintelligence |title=A Counterintelligence Reader |url=https://permanent.fdlp.gov/lps54742/counterintelligencereader/ci/docs/ci3/index.html |volume=3 |location=Washington |publisher=National Counterintelligence Center |pages=31-33 |oclc=466390088}}
* {{cite book |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |date=1990 |title=The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie: New Dealer, Presidential Adviser, and Development Economist |url=https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/20852801 |location=Durham |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822310303}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sandilands |first=Roger J. |date=2000 |title=Guilt by Association? Lauchlin Currie's Alleged Involvement with Washington Economists in Soviet Espionage |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article/32/3/473/11962 |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=473-515 |doi=10.1215/00182702-32-3-473 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite journal |editor1-last=Sandilands |editor1-first=Roger J. |date=2004 |title=Special Issue: New Light on Lauchlin Currie |url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0144-3585/vol/31/iss/3/4 |journal=Journal of Economic Studies |volume=31 |issue=3/4 |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite book |last1=Schecter |first1=Jerrold L. |last2=Schecter |first2=Leona |date=2002 |title=Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History |url=https://archive.org/details/sacredsecretshow0000sche |location=Washington |publisher=Brassey’s |oclc=48375744 |isbn=9781574883275}}
* {{cite book |last=Stein |first=Herbert |date=1969 |title=The Fiscal Revolution in America |url=https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/780468423 |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226771717}}.
* {{cite report |author=Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws |date=1953 |title=Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments |url=https://archive.org/details/interlockingsubv1953unit |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |access-date=2023-12-05}}
* {{cite report |author=Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws |date=1953 |title=Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments |url=https://archive.org/details/interlockingsubv1953unit |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |access-date=2023-12-05}}
** See [[Clayton Lawrence Bissell|General Bissell]] to General Strong, 3 June 1942; Silvermaster reply to Bissell memo, 9 June 1942; and Robert P. Patterson to Milo Perkins of [[Board of Economic Warfare]], 3 July 1942.
** See [[Clayton Lawrence Bissell|General Bissell]] to General Strong, 3 June 1942; Silvermaster reply to Bissell memo, 9 June 1942; and Robert P. Patterson to Milo Perkins of [[Board of Economic Warfare]], 3 July 1942.
* {{cite journal |last1=Warner |first1=Michael |last2=Benson |first2=Robert Louis |date=1997 |title=Venona and Beyond: Thoughts on Work Undone |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=1-13 |doi=10.1080/02684529708432428}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Warner |first1=Michael |last2=Benson |first2=Robert Louis |date=1997 |title=Venona and Beyond: Thoughts on Work Undone |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=1-13 |doi=10.1080/02684529708432428}}
* {{cite book |last1=Weinstein |first1=Allen |last2=Vassiliev |first2=Alexander |date=1999 |title=The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era |location=New York |publisher=Random House |oclc=39051089 |isbn=9780679457244}}
* Two serials in the FBI's Silvermaster file:
* Two serials in the FBI's Silvermaster file:
** [https://archive.org/details/FBISilvermasterFile/FBI%20File%20Silvermaster%20Part%2023%20February%201946/ Serial 573]: "Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government", 21 February 1946.
** [https://archive.org/details/FBISilvermasterFile/FBI%20File%20Silvermaster%20Part%2023%20February%201946/ Serial 573]: "Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government", 21 February 1946.

Revision as of 21:51, 6 December 2023

For the Nova Scotia judge and politician, see Lauchlin Daniel Currie.
Lauchlin Currie
Lauchlin Currie on July 17, 1939
Born
Lauchlin Bernard Currie

(1902-10-08)October 8, 1902
Nova Scotia, Canada
DiedDecember 23, 1993(1993-12-23) (aged 91)
Bogota, Colombia
NationalityCanadian, American, Colombian
EmployerUniversidad de los Andes
Academic career
FieldEconomic adviser
Alma materHarvard University
InfluencesAllyn Abbott Young
AwardsOrder of Boyacá

Lauchlin Bernard Currie (8 October 1902-23 December 1993) was a Canadian government economist who became President Franklin Roosevelt's chief economic advisor during World War II. After Roosevelt's death, he directed a World Bank mission to Colombia and eventually settled there, becoming an economic advisor to a series of Colombian presidential administrations. This move, however, was not entirely voluntarily, as the United States had refused to renew his passport in 1954 (he was a naturalized citizen). It is likely that this occurred because he had been named by two Soviet defectors and in nine partially decrypted cables sent by Soviet agents, but he was never prosecuted and debate remains around his level of conscious involvement.

Childhood and education

Currie was born on 8 October 1902 in West Dublin, Nova Scotia to Lauchlin Bernard Currie, an operator of a fleet of merchant ships, and Alice Eisenhauer Currie, a schoolteacher. After his father died in 1906, his family moved to nearby Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, where most of his schooling took place.[1]

Currie had begun to demonstrate studious habits (like reading late into the night) by the time his family moved to Massachusetts, but he drove automobiles "with his foot on the floor board" for relaxation.[2] He also attended school in California, where he had relatives.

After two years at Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1922 to study at the London School of Economics under Edwin Cannan, Hugh Dalton, A. L. Bowley, and Harold Laski. He earned a PhD from Harvard University in 1931, with his dissertation on banking theory.[3] He was heavily influenced by his Harvard mentor Allyn Abbott Young (then president of the American Economic Association), and Currie's final paper--on Youngian endogenous growth theory--was posthumously published in 1997.[4]

Early professional life

In a January 1932 Harvard memorandum on anti-Depression policy, Currie and fellow instructors Harry Dexter White and Paul T. Ellsworth urged large fiscal deficits coupled with open market operations to expand bank reserves, as well as the lifting of tariffs and the relief of interallied debts.[5]

In 1934, Currie constructed the first money supply and income velocity series for the United States. He blamed the government's "commercial loan theory" of banking for monetary tightening in mid-1929, when the economy was already declining, and then for its passivity during the next four years in the face of mass liquidations and bank failures. Instead, he advocated control of the money supply to stabilize income and expenditures. He cited his colleague and covert Soviet agent Abraham George Silverman for his "many helpful suggestions and criticisms" in the formation of this line of thinking.[6]

Currie remained at Harvard until 1934 as a lecturer and assistant to (successively) Ralph George Hawtrey, John H. Williams, and Joseph Schumpeter, and one of his students was Paul Sweezy.[7]

New Deal

Freshman brain trust

In 1934, Currie became a naturalized United States citizen and joined Jacob Viner's "freshman brain trust" at the United States Department of the Treasury, where he outlined an ideal monetary system for the U.S. that included a 100-percent reserve banking plan to strengthen central bank control and prevent bank panics in the future by preventing member banks from lending out their demand deposit liabilities, while removing reserve requirements on savings deposits with low turnover.[8] Later that year, Marriner Stoddard Eccles left the Treasury to become chairman of the Federal Reserve and took Currie with him as his personal assistant. Currie's former Harvard colleague Harry White was another "freshman brain trust" recruit who became a top adviser to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., and White and Currie worked closely in their respective roles for some years after.[9]

Currie drafted the Banking Act of 1935 soon afterwards, which reorganized the Federal Reserve and strengthened its powers. He also constructed a "net federal income-creating expenditure series" to show the strategic role of fiscal policy in complementing monetary policy to revive an economy in exceptionally acute, persisting depression. Currie's preferred 100-percent reserve banking idea, however, was not one of the reforms implemented. Alan Meltzer wrote in his history of the Federal Reserve that "Lauchlin Currie wrote a remarkable memo for a Treasury committee in 1934 emphasizing the role of money in cyclical fluctuations, at a time when virtually no one thought that money mattered."[10]

In 1937, the economy declined sharply after four years of recovery. In a four-hour interview with President Roosevelt, Currie was able to explain that the declared aim of balancing the budget "to restore business confidence" had damaged the economy. This was part of the "struggle for the soul of FDR" between the cautious Morgenthau and the expansionist Eccles.[11] In April 1938, President Roosevelt asked Congress for major appropriations for spending on relief and public works. In May 1939, the rationale was explained in theoretical and statistical detail by Currie ("Mr. Inside") and by Harvard's Alvin Hansen ("Mr. Outside") in testimony before the Temporary National Economic Committee to highlight the role of government deficits in the recovery process.

White House

Currie was named President Roosevelt's chief White House economist in July 1939 and advised on taxation, social security, and the speeding up of peacetime and wartime production plans. In January 1941, he was sent to China for discussions with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (representing the Kuomintang) and Zhou Enlai (representing the Communist Party of China) in the Chinese wartime capital of Chongqing.[12] In an effort to preserve the appearance of American neutrality in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese government paid Currie's expenses and government salary.[13] He recommended that China be added to the lend-lease program upon his return in March, and he was put in charge of this program's administration under the overall direction of President's Roosevelt's special assistant Harry Hopkins.[14]

Currie was also assigned to expedite the Flying Tigers, a voluntary unit of American military pilots released for combat duty on behalf of China against Japan and technically part of the Chinese Air Force under the command of Claire Chennault (Currie also organized a large training program in the U.S. for Chinese pilots). In May 1941, he presented a paper on Chinese aircraft requirements to General George C. Marshall and the Joint War Board, which they accepted. This paper stressed the role that an air force in China could play in defending Singapore, the Burma Road, and the Philippines against Japanese attack, as well as the potential for strategic bombing of targets in Japan. These activities, together with his efforts to tighten economic sanctions against Japan, are said to have been partially responsible for provoking Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.[15]

Currie returned to Chongqing in July 1942 to try to ease strained relations between Kai-shek and General Joseph W. Stilwell, commander of American military forces in China. Currie was one of several presidential envoys who recommended Stilwell's recall and reassignment, but General Marshall refused to do so until October 1944.[16] He also appears to have been involved in carrying out orders from President Roosevelt to get American intelligence services to return Soviet cryptographic documents and cease decoding operations, so as not to upset a wartime ally.

From 1943-1944, Currie served as Deputy Administrator of the Foreign Economic Administration, where he recruited or recommended economists and others throughout the federal sector. Prominent examples include John Kenneth Galbraith, Richard Gilbert, Adlai Stevenson, and William O'Dwyer. Currie became a founding member of the War Agencies Employees Protective Association (created to help civilian federal employees acquire life insurance while serving in warzones) while at the FEA and served as WAEPA's first president from May 1943 until his retirement in June 1945.[17]

From 1944–1945, Currie was involved in loan negotiations between the U.S. and its British and Soviet allies and in preparations for the 1944 Bretton Woods conference (staged mainly by Harry White), which led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In early 1945, Currie headed a tripartite (American, British, and French) mission to Bern to persuade the Swiss to freeze Nazi bank accounts and stop further shipments of German supplies through Switzerland to the Italian front.

In July 1949, Currie headed a nine-man mission (known as the Currie Mission) to Colombia on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which had tasked them with assessing the country's economic potentialities and subsequently recommending an integrated program for economic development.

Espionage allegations

Currie was identified as a Soviet agent by Soviet defector Whittaker Chambers in a 1939 meeting with Roosevelt aide Adolf A. Berle[18], and the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a file on Currie.[19] He informed Soviet contacts in the spring of 1944 that the Venona project was about to break the Soviet signals code[20], and he was one of those blamed after the war for losing China to the control of Communists.

Elizabeth Bentley, another Soviet defector, testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in August 1948 and named Currie and Harry Dexter White as part of the Silvermaster ring.[21] Although she had never met them in person, she stated that she had received information through cutouts (couriers), who were other Washington economists later determined to be Soviet agents.[22] White and Currie responded by asking to appear before the Committee to rebut her charges, and did so later that month.[23] White died three days later due to a serious heart problem, and he was later confirmed to be a source of Soviet intelligence in Venona intercepts and the notes of NKVD official Gaik Ovakimian.

Currie was never prosecuted, and in July 1949, he was appointed to head a nine-man mission (known as the Currie Mission) to Colombia on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which had tasked them with assessing the country's economic potentialities and subsequently recommending an integrated program for economic development. After his report was published in September 1950, he was invited by the Colombian government to return to Bogotá as adviser to a commission established to implement the report's recommendations.[24] In December 1952, he gave evidence in New York to a grand jury investigating Owen Lattimore's role in the publication of secret State Department documents in Amerasia magazine.

However, when Currie tried to renew his U.S. passport in 1954, he was refused on the grounds that he was now residing abroad and married to a Colombian woman.[25] However, he may have been identified by the then-secret Venona project, which had decrypted wartime Soviet cables where he was identified as a source of Soviet intelligence. He appears in these cables under the codename "PAGE", and in Soviet intelligence archives as "VIM" and a source for the Golos and Bentley spy networks.[26][27]

Historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr[28][29], Allen Weinstein[30], and Christopher Andrew[31] have concluded that Currie was a Soviet agent. While Currie's biographer Roger J. Sandilands agrees that Currie knew and was connected to individuals who turned out to be Soviet agents, he has disagreed that the evidence is clear that Currie was himself an agent.[32][33][34] Currie was a likely target due to his position in the White House, and he may have unknowingly been an asset.

Colombia

After a 1953 military coup in Colombia, Currie took a sabbatical from economic advisory work and devoted himself to raising Holstein cattle on a farm outside Bogotá, where he cultivated the highest-yielding dairy herd in the country.[35] With the return of civilian government in 1958, President Alberto Lleras personally conferred Colombian citizenship upon Currie, and he returned to advisory work for a series of presidential administrations. His last book was on the role of economic advisors like himself in developing countries.[36]

Between 1966-1971, Currie traveled abroad as a visiting professor at North American and British universities: Michigan State University (1966), Simon Fraser University (1967–1968 and 1969–1971)[37], the University of Glasgow (1968–1969)[38], and the University of Oxford (1969). He returned permanently to Colombia in May 1971 at the behest of President Misael Pastrana Borrero to be the architect of a new "Plan of the Four Strategies" with a focus on urban housing and export diversification. The plan was implemented, and new institutions played a major role in accelerating Colombia's urbanization.

From 1971-1981, Currie was chief economist at the Colombian National Planning Department, followed by 12 years at the Colombian Institute of Savings and Housing until his death. He defended the unique housing finance system established in 1972, which was based on "units of constant purchasing power" for both savers and borrowers. This system significantly boosted Colombia's growth.

He also advised on urban planning and was an organizer of the first United Nations Habitat conference in 1976.[39] He detailed his "cities-within-the-city" urban design and financing proposals (including the public recapture of land's socially created "valorización" or "unearned land value increments" as cities grow) in Taming the Megalopolis.[40] He was also a professor at the National University of Colombia, the Javeriana University, and the University of the Andes.

In 1993, President César Gaviria awarded Currie the Order of Boyaca (Colombia's highest peacetime decoration)[41] one day before Currie's death from a heart attack.[42]

Additional publications

Books

  • A 1968 reissue of The Supply and Control of Money in the United States includes an essay on Currie's contribution to monetary theory by Karl Brunner. OCLC 310482019.
  • Currie, Lauchlin (1961). Operación Colombia un programa nacional de desarrollo económico y social. Bogotá: Sociedad Colombiana de Economistas. OCLC 948842148.
  • Currie, Lauchlin (1966). Accelerating Development: The Necessity and the Means. New York: McGraw-Hill. OCLC 330897.
  • Currie, Lauchlin (1967). Obstacles to Development. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. OCLC 188221.
  • Larsson, Yngve Gustaf Rickard; Wolff, Peter de; Currie, Lauchlin (1967). Governmental Planning and Political Economy. Berkeley: Institute of Business and Economic Research, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley. OCLC 873600.
  • Currie, Lauchlin (1982). The Role of Economic Advisers in Developing Countries. Westport: Greenwood. ISBN 9780313230646. OCLC 363921934.

Articles

Archival collections

References

  1. ^ Sandilands, Roger J. (2018). "Currie, Lauchlin (1902-1993)". The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_66. ISBN 9781349951895.
  2. ^ "Apostle of Spending". Nation’s Business. 29 (8): 48+. 1941. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  3. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1931). Bank Assets and Banking Theory (PhD thesis). Harvard University. OCLC 76981630.
  4. ^ Currie, Lauchlin; Sandilands, Roger J. (1997). "Implications of an Endogenous Theory of Growth in Allyn Young's Macroeconomic Concept of Increasing Returns". History of Political Economy. 29 (3): 413–443. doi:10.1215/00182702-29-3-413.
  5. ^ Laidler, David; Sandilands, Robert J. (2002). "An Early Harvard Memorandum on Anti-Depression Policies: An Introductory Note". History of Political Economy. 34 (3): 515–532. doi:10.1215/00182702-34-3-515.
  6. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1934). "The Failure of Monetary Policy to Prevent the Depression of 1929-32". Journal of Political Economy. 42 (2): 145–177. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  7. ^ Sandilands, Roger J. (2009). "An Archival Case Study: Revisiting the Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie". In Leeson, Robert (ed.). American Power and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 105–133. doi:10.1057/9780230246140_6. ISBN 9781403949561. OCLC 319211427.
  8. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1934). The Supply and Control of Money in the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. OCLC 3103081.
  9. ^ Conti-Brown, Peter (2015). "The Twelve Federal Reserve Banks: Governance and Accountability in the 21st Century" (PDF). Working Paper #10. Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  10. ^ Goodfriend, Marvin (2003). "A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 1: 1913-1951". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  11. ^ Stein, Herbert (1969). The Fiscal Revolution in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226771717.
  12. ^ Lauchlin Bernard Currie papers. Palo Alto: Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University. OCLC 754871087.
  13. ^ Coble, Parks M. (2023). The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-Shek Lost China’s Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 9781009297615. OCLC 1348864790.
  14. ^ Sandilands, Roger J. (1990). The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie: New Dealer, Presidential Adviser, and Development Economist. Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 96–112. ISBN 9780822310303. OCLC 20852801.
  15. ^ Ford, Daniel (2019). "Lauchlin Currie: A Spy at the Heart of the AVG?". The Warbird’s Forum. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  16. ^ Jiang, Xiangze (1988). The United States and China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 107-112. ISBN 9780226399478. OCLC 16901450.
  17. ^ "Lauchlin Currie, being presented with a silver cigarette case by two men, on his retirement as president of the War Agencies Employees Protective Association". Library of Congress. 1945. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  18. ^ Weinstein, Allen (1978). Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 292. ISBN 9780394491769. OCLC 3480930.
  19. ^ Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Section (2004). "Lauchlin Currie". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 2023-12-05. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  20. ^ Benson, Robert Louis; Warner, Michael (1996). Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response. Laguna Hills: Aegean Park Press. pp. 51–54. ISBN 9780894122651. OCLC 36895456. footnote 22
  21. ^ Loftus, Joseph A. (1948-08-01). "Currie Accused of Helping Spies; A Roosevelt Aide". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  22. ^ Schecter, Jerrold L.; Schecter, Leona (2002). Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History. Washington: Brassey’s. ISBN 9781574883275. OCLC 48375744.
  23. ^ Committee on Un-American Activities (1948). Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government (Report). United States Government Printing Office. p. 851-877. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  24. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1950). The Basis of a Development Program for Colombia. Washington: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. OCLC 5089081.
  25. ^ "U.S. Citizenship is Lost by Currie". New York Times. New York. 1956-03-27. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  26. ^ Haynes, John Earl (2005). "Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks". Historical Writings. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  27. ^ Hanyok, Robert J. (2005). Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust (PDF). Fort Meade: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency. OCLC 694080390.
  28. ^ Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (1999). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 43, 145–150, 161. ISBN 9780300077711. OCLC 40396483. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  29. ^ Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (2003). In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage. San Francisco: Encounter Books. p. 191. ISBN 9781893554726. OCLC 52258223. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  30. ^ Weinstein, Allen; Vassiliev, Alexander (1999). The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era. New York: Random House. pp. 161–163. ISBN 9780679457244. OCLC 39051089.
  31. ^ Andrew, Christopher M.; Mitrokhin, Vasili (1999). The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. New York: Basic Books. p. 130. ISBN 9780465003105. OCLC 42368608.
  32. ^ Sandilands, Roger J. (2000). "Guilt by Association? Lauchlin Currie's Alleged Involvement with Washington Economists in Soviet Espionage". History of Political Economy. 32 (3): 473–515. doi:10.1215/00182702-32-3-473. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  33. ^ Boughton, James; Sandilands, Roger (2003). "Politics and the Attack on FDR's Economists: From the Grand Alliance to the Cold War". Intelligence and National Security. 18 (3): 73–99. doi:10.1080/02684520412331306930. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  34. ^ Sandilands, Roger J., ed. (2004). "Special Issue: New Light on Lauchlin Currie". Journal of Economic Studies. 31 (3/4). Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  35. ^ Sandilands, Roger J. (2022). "The Influence of Adam Smith and Allyn Young on Lauchlin Currie's Advisory Work in Colombia, 1949-93" (PDF). Studies in Applied Economics No. 216. Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  36. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1982). The Role of Economic Advisers in Developing Countries. Westport: Greenwood. ISBN 9780313230646. OCLC 363921934.
  37. ^ "Past Honorary Degree Recipients". Simon Fraser University. 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  38. ^ "Information Section". Bulletin of the Society for Latin American Studies (10): 7. 1968. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  39. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1976). Urbanization: Some Basic Issues. Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements. Vancouver. OCLC 6978054.
  40. ^ Currie, Lauchlin (1976). Taming the Megalopolis: A Design for Urban Growth. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 9780080209807. OCLC 2089594.
  41. ^ "Order of Boyacá". nina.az. 2021. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  42. ^ "Lauchlin Currie, 91; New Deal Economist Was Roosevelt Aide". New York Times. New York. 1993-12-30. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  • "File card of Patterson contacts in regard to Silvermaster". Robert Porter Patterson papers, Series: Under Secretary of War Files, Box: 202, File: Card indices, 9 March 1941-31 December 1943, Re-Str. Washington: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. OCLC 74984701.
  • "Lauchlin Currie". La Enciclopedia Banrepcultural. 2021. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  • Phillips, Ronnie J. (1995). The Chicago Plan and New Deal Banking Reform. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 9781563244698.
  • Poznyakov, Vladimir (2003). "Intelligence, Information and Political Decision Making Process: the Turning Points of the Early Cold War Period, 1944-1953". Cold War in Retrospective. Moscow: OLMA-Press. pp. 321–368.
  • Rafalko, Frank J. (2004). "Cold War Counterintelligence". A Counterintelligence Reader. Vol. 3. Washington: National Counterintelligence Center. pp. 31–33. OCLC 466390088.
  • Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws (1953). Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments (Report). United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  • Warner, Michael; Benson, Robert Louis (1997). "Venona and Beyond: Thoughts on Work Undone". Intelligence and National Security. 12 (3): 1–13. doi:10.1080/02684529708432428.
  • Two serials in the FBI's Silvermaster file:
    • Serial 573: "Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government", 21 February 1946.
    • Serial 2794: "Report on Currie Interview", 31 July 1947.
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