I FIRST MET WALTER WHEN HE ZOOMED ONTO THE NATIONAL SCENE AS THE CHAIRMAN OF KENNEDY'S COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS. WHAT HEADY DAYS! A NEW CAMELOT PRESIDENT; HUMPHREY ~ HIGH TIDE, AND TO TOP IT OFF, OUR WALTER HELLER AT THE CENTER OF ECONOMIC POLICY. THE WORLD WAS OURS! WALTER DI DN'T LE'r US DOWN . HE i1AY HAVE BEEN 'EHE MOST INFLUENTIAL OF ALL THE CHAIRMAN IN THE COUNCIL'S HISTORY . KENNEDY LOVED HIM, SO DID THE CONGRESS AND EVEN THE PRESS LIKED HIM. WHAT'S MORE, -- GLORIES BEHOLD! -- WE COULD EVEN UNDERSTAND HIM! ~f!J ~~D __--- EQ-~OMIS~ AS A NEW SENATOR, I LIVED IN REFLECTED GLORY. WALTER WAS BEFORE THE CONGRESS ALL OF THE TIME. HE BRIEFED EVERY PRESIDENT AND APPEARED ENDLESSLY ON THE NATIONAL NEWS. HE WAS BRILLANT. HE COULD MAKE THE COMPLEX SEEM SIMPLE AND MAKE THE SIMPLE FEEL COMPLEX. HE PREACHED A HEADY GOSPEL: A WISE PEOPLE COULD SHAPE A HEALTHY GROWING ECONOMY. WE WERE NOT DOOMED TO SUFFER GYRATIONS , STAGNATION AND MISERY. I KNOW NOW, MORE THAN I UNDERSTOOD AT FIRST, WHY I SO ADMIRED HIM. I DID SO BECAUSE WALTER ALWAYS CARED. ECONOMICS, AS TAUGHT BY WALTER WAS NEVER THE "DISMAL SCIENCE"; ECONOMICS WAS NOT AN ABST RACT Ion : IT HAD A PURPOSE, TO HELP PEOPLE, TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITY- TO ENLARGE JUSTICE; AND TO CARE FOR I THE VULNERABLE. HE WAS ~A~r=i=-~v~ MARVELOUS TEACHER, NOT ONLY OF PRESIDENTS, BUT OF STUDENTS AT HIS BLESSED U OF MINNESOTA. JUST BEFORE HE DIED, HE TOLD HIS FAMILY HOW THRILLED HE WAS TO BE PREPARING HIS FALL LECTURES FOR HIS FRESHMEN COURSE HERE AT WILLY ,; ~ ,,;;c 'J.L- u...r HALL. l¥HIS IS EXACTLY WHERE WALTER WOULD WANT HIS MEMORIAL SERVICE TO BE HELD. IN HIS DECENCY SHOWED IN HIS WONDERFUL FACE AND HIS BEAUTIFUL 4 SMILE. I FEEL THE SAME ABOUT WALTER AS I DID WHEN HUBERT DIED-- -~ - A SAD FEELING OF ENORMOUS LOSS AND A DEEP CERTAINTY THAT / ~ HIS WORK WILL ENDURE. ---- ----------~ - ~UOT~SHAKESPEAR~-;,;;;- I',? LIKE _ T ~ ~L~~~!! =~ ~~ - 2 - r:;~~ AG=). , HE SAID -----.. -~-.. ~ .~.---- ... -- ........ --- -- "A STRAIGHT BACK WILL SLOPE; A~ EARD WILL q~ vfRfrE; A CURLED PATE WILL GROW BALD; A FAIR FACE WILL WITHER; A FULL EYE WILL WAX HALLOW BUT A GOOD HEART IS THE SUN AND THE MOON, OR RATHER THE SUN, AND NOT THE MOON, FOR IT SH INES BRI GHT AND NEVER CHANGES, BUT, KEEPS ITS COURSE TRULY." WALTER'S GREAT HEART KEPT ITS COURSE TRULY. IT DIDN'T REFLECT LIGHT; IT PRODUCED IT. WE WILL MISS HIM, ALWAYS. - 3 - Heller: Presidential Persuader brightest of the lot, the one who not only reach full employment under the bur­ double-spaced pages to the pr.esldent. I understood something while you were den of that heavy income tax - which thought I'd just give them to him, tell go, explaining it to him but retained it. And at the time ran to 91 percent marginal him a little bit about It and then let him if you had a meeting with him three rates. It was then, in March 1961, that I read it and tell me what changes to mist months later and went over the same began pushing for a major tax cut, make. But he was a speed reader, and ground, he would say 'Yeah, I've got which President Kennedy eventually by now he was pretty savvy on the eco­ reminisce((about that, let's go on from there.' proposed in 1963. That was the first nomic front. Of course, economic advis­ time in history that a President specifi­ ers always claim their President Is Q. The Kennedy tax cut. which cally endorsed and adopted the Keyne­ savvy, but Kennedy really was. Al­ his public career. touched off an economic boom that sian approach - the first President though, always within limitations. NYT 6/21/87 lasted almost a decade, Is generally who was willing to say that a deficit But. instead of having a little conver­ regarded as the seminal economic could be a good thing. I know, because I sation and dismissing me he said, 'No. AL TER W. Heller, chief eco­ event of the 1960's, perhaps of the wrote the words for him. I had a fasci­ I'll go over it right now.' nomic adviser to Presidents postwar period. Do you regard It as nating experience WIth him on it. Now you have to remember that the W Kennedy and Johnson, came of such? Was It your Idea, as history tax cut was a totally Innovative thing. age in the postwar era when many of seems ready to concede? Q. What happened? Old you have because we had no recession. The econ­ the most creative economic thinkers A. As far as our activities in. the 60's, a difficult time converting the omy was moving up. We had a substan­ were drawn to the theories of John everything started with - it's immod­ President to Keyneslanlsm? tial defiCit, and never before had any Maynard Keynes. But Mr. Heller. who est to say so, but it was - my tax cut. It A. In a sense I felt that the milestone President had the wit or wisdom to put died last week at the age of 71, was un­ was born on my desk, and at the time in the education of a President in ap­ in a tax cut in an expanding economy usual in that he was In a position to not with the cooperation of my two col­ plied Keynesian economics occurred in with a big budget deficit. apply those precepts. Moreover. he was leagues on the Council, Kermit Gordon January 1963. Anyway, we were standing there - an enormously personable man with a and James Tobin. At the last minute, four days before it he on one side of his desk and I on the soothing manner that served him well It was Clear that we were not going to had to be printed, I took 22 typewritten, Continued on Page 13 in convincing Presidents to follow his ~ i prescriptions, even when they clashed with political expediency. On a visit to New York earlier this year from his native Minnesota, Mr. Heller talked with Ky le Crichton, the Business Forum editor, about his ca· reer as a PresIdential counselor. His reminiscences provide a fascinating 2 Rms., glimpse into the Inner circles of power and a reminder of how great policy ElK, decisIOns are often made by people who may have had something more Impor· lant on their minds that day . Microwave, Q. You have called yourself an 7 M.P.G. "educator of Presidents." A. This is perhaps self-serving, but I was struck last spring when somebody ByN. R. introduced me as the economist who ad­ vised more Presidents and Presidential candidates than any other economist. I Kleinfield guess that's right. Going back to Adlai Stevenson, I worked - well, he didn't think much of economics and working with him as an economic adviser was not a terribly demanding thing - but I Page 4 was one of the inner coterie there, and worked with Humphrey, Mondale, Ken­ Ip, nedy, Johnson and Carter and so on. Q. Of all the Presidents and .I Presidential aspirants you have known, who was the smartest? A_ Mondale was, ~ would say, the THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 1987 F 13 Reflections on a Career as a Presidential Counselor Continued (rom PaRe I Q, "Heller conalders the about (our miles from the ranch other - and he flipped through the present Income tax structure not house, and George Hamilton i. slttlna speech In perhaps no more than 10 only Inequitable, but uneconomic up Ihere. Hamilton, who had told me minutes, maybe less, and then tossed It too. It ImpedH economic effl· the night before that he hadn't had a to me and said 'that's fine.' I said, clency by dlatortlnl economic gun In his hand for live years, tapped laughing, 'My God, Mr. President, decision.. So a tax reform, he be­ me on the shoulder and asked me If I you're sure shOWing a lot of confl· lieves, would Improve the econ­ was nervous. I lied through my teeth dence In me.' omy's overall efnclency" ," The and said no. But I was the spotter - He said 'Sure, why not?' dlacuaalon hun't chanled much the President driving - the best auto­ ' 1 said, ' Don 't you know I have you throulh the yea .... bat It? mobile driver I've ever seen. He saying something In there that no gunned It over dirt roads, through other President hal ever said - that A. I wrote the first article on tax re­ water, at 50, 60 miles an hour. form In 1951. At that time we needed a deficit under certain circumstances Q, In a white Lincoln? can be a good thing ; that there are additional revenue for fighting the constructive deficits and destructive war In Korea without Innatlon. So I A. A white Lincoln convertible. And deficits and It depends on the circum· .uggested eliminating all these dlf· he goes right on with our conversa· ferent categories of tax preferences stances? lion of the night before. No matter He said 'Well , all right, let me take Instead of raising rates. what he was domg, whether he was Within a year or two, Joe Pechman another look at that.' And so he went gomg to the tOilet or whatever, he'd back and he looked at that part, and took that, converted It Into a thor· conllnue the conversallon.