Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Nixon and economic advisor to other presidents, Paul W McCracken died at the age of 96 in Ann Arbor, Michigan last Friday.
McCracken’s death was announced on the website of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where he was professor emeritus of business administration, economics and public policy. The website quotes Nixon as saying that he depended on McCracken “for his incisive intellect and his hard-headed pragmatism.
‘‘He was a key adviser during a crucial time in our nation’s history,’’ Nixon wrote in 1985.
Before he was enlisted by Nixon to chair the Council of Economic Advisors, McCracken has served as an advisor on the same council for President Eisenhower. In between those two jobs he worked for President John Kennedy on his domestic economic task force and on the Commission on budget Concepts under President Lyndon Johnson.
Nixon and McCracken did not agree on the correct path to take the country economically, and McCracken resigned from the council in 1971 over price and wage control.
“I thought price controls were a bad idea for a very simple reason. You couldn’t look back into history and point to a success story,’’ McCracken said. ‘‘At the time, the president and Congress were involved in a battle in the political domain. Political battles are often more important to them than hard, solid data.’’
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