Ezra Solomon

Ezra Solomon (March 20, 1920 – December 9, 2002) was an influential US economist and professor of economics at Stanford University. As a member of the Council of Economic Advisors (1971–1973) during the Nixon administration, he was seen as having contributed significantly to the change in US monetary policy which resulted in the end of the gold standard for US currency and of the Bretton Woods system of exchange rates.

Early life and education Solomon was born in Rangoon (now Yangon), British Burma to parents of Burmese British Jewish heritage. He graduated with a first class honours degree in economics from the University of Rangoon in 1940, but fled the country when the Japanese invaded Burma in 1941. Solomon served as a lieutenant in the Burma Division of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) from 1942 to 1947. After World War II, he was sent to the University of Chicago as a Burma State Scholar, where he earned a PhD in economics in 1950.

Post-graduate career During his graduate studies, Solomon joined the faculty of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business (now Booth School of Business), serving as an assistant professor of finance from 1951 to 1955, and a professor from 1957 to 1961. His most well-known book, The Theory of Financial Management (1963) revolutionized the study of finance from a descriptive to a rigorous, theory-based discipline founded on mathematics. The couple were married for 53 years, before Cameron died on November 14, 2002, less than a month before his death. The couple had 3 daughters, Catherine, Ming, and Lorna. He lived there until his death in 2002.

Death Solomon died of a stroke on December 9, 2002, at his home in Stanford, California.