Sidney L. Jones

Education and military career

In 1954 Jones earned a B.S. in economics from Utah State University. From August 1954 to September 1956 he served in the United States Army, first at Fort Lee in Virginia and then at the Sierra Army Depot in California. He left the Army as a First Lieutenant.

In 1956 Jones entered Stanford, where he earned an M.B.A. in 1958 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1960. becoming at 33 the youngest full professor in the history of the University of Michigan. He has described himself as an "eclectic monetarist." In 1984, as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, he favored reducing inflation by lowering federal spending, instituting a consumption tax, and reducing income tax exemptions, rather than increasing marginal income tax rates.

In 1983, two of Ronald Reagan's most senior aides disagreed over how to reduce the federal budget deficit in fiscal year 1985. Council of Economic Advisers chairman Martin Feldstein wanted to raise taxes, while Treasury Secretary Donald Regan wanted to reduce spending. Jones sided with Regan, and in the end so did Reagan.

Republican and Democratic economists praised Jones's work as an economist and described him as within the mainstream of contemporary economic thought. Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Ford in the 1976 election, so in early 1977 Jones was preparing to leave government. He praised Carter's choices for economic advisers, including Charles Schultze, W. Michael Blumenthal, and Bert Lance, despite disagreeing with many of their policy views. During the 1989 Senate confirmation hearing for Jones's second tenure as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, he won praise from Republican Senators John Chafee and Bob Packwood as well as Democratic Senators Lloyd Bentsen and David Pryor.