Walter Heller: Difference between revisions

Walter Wolfgang Heller (1915-1987) was a leading American economist of the 1960s, and an influential advisor to John F. Kennedy as chairman of the Council of Economic advisors, 1961-64. He was a Keynesian who promoted cuts in the marginal federal income tax rates. This tax cut, which was passed by Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress after Kennedy's death, was credited for boosting the U.S. economy. Heller developed the first "voluntary" wage-price guidelines. When the steel industry failed to follow them, it was publicly attacked by Kennedy and quickly complied. Heller was one of the first to emphasize that tax deductions and tax preferences narrowed the income tax base, thus requiring, for a given amount of revenue, higher marginal tax rates.

• Heller, Walter. Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy (a dialogue with Milton Friedman). 1969.
• Heller, Walter. New Dimensions of Political Economy. 1966.