Leon Keyserling

Leon Hirsch Keyserling (January 11, 1908 – August 9, 1987) was an American economist and lawyer who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1950 to 1953. During his tenure, he advised President Harry S. Truman on the economic issues and helped draft major pieces of Fair Deal legislation.

Early life Keyserling was born in 1908 in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up on Saint Helena Island. He earned an A.B. from Columbia University in 1928 and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1931. He returned to Columbia as a graduate student in the Department of Economics from 1931 to 1933, While there, Keyserling studied under Rexford Tugwell, but never finished his dissertation.

Keyserling's wife, Mary Dublin Keyserling, was also an economist. Photograph of members of the1949 Council of Economic Advisers and White House staff members working on the President's Midyear Economic Report in the Cabinet Room: (from left to right) Charles S. Murphy, Administrative Assistant to the President; David E. Bell, Special Assistant in the White House Office; Keyserling; Vice Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; Robert Turner, consultant on the White House staff; Edwin Griswold Nourse, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; and John Davidson Clark, member of the Council of Economic Advisers In 1946 Keyserling became the Vice Chairman of the newly created Council of Economic Advisers. He became its Acting Chairman in 1949 and the chairman in 1950. In 1952 Keyserling and his wife were attacked by Joseph McCarthy as part of the Second Red Scare as "belonging to Communist front groups." Keyserling left as chairman in 1953. He also introduced the reporting of the Gross National Product in real as well as nominal dollars

Later life Following his time advising President Truman, Keyserling consulted with Congress on a variety of economic issues and also practiced law.

In 1969 Keyserling served as president of the National Committee for Labor in Israel, a US organization that worked with the Israeli Histadrut.

He died on August 9, 1987, at Washington, D.C.'s George Washington University Hospital.

Writings Based on Leon H. Keyserling Papers in the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.

Redirecting Education (with Rexford Tugwell) (1934) Toward Full Employment and Full Production (1954) Consumption-Key to Full Prosperity (1957) The Federal Budget and the General Welfare (1959) The Peace by Investment Corporation (with Benjamin Javitts) (1962) Taxes and the Public Interest (1963) Progress or Poverty (1964) The Move Toward Railroad Mergers (1965) A Freedom Budget for All Americans (1966) The Scarcity School of Economics (1973) Liberal and Conservative National Economic Policies and Their Consequences, 1919-79 (1979) The Current Significance of the New Deal (1984)