Tag: Kessel

 

Preliminary examinations at the University of Chicago for Money, Banking and Monetary Policy from the Summer Quarter, 1956 and Winter Quarter, 1969 have been posted earlier.

On August 4, 1959 a three-hour “Core Examination” was taken by seventeen students and a four-hour “Money Prelim” was taken by nine students. Two additional questions were added to the “Money Prelim”.

_______________

Summer Quarter 1959 Examination Committee for Money, Banking and Monetary Policy:

Milton Friedman (chairman)
Earl J. Hamilton
Reuben A. Kessel

_______________

Reuben A. Kessel, obituary
New York Times, 21 June 1975.

Dr. Reuben A. Kessel, professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business since 1962, died yesterday at a hospital in Chicago, after having suffered a stroke a week ago. He was 52 years old and lived in Floss moor, Ill.

Dr. Kessel earlier taught at the University of Missouri and the University of California at Los Angeles. From 1952 to 1956 he was an economist with the Rand Corporation. He later served as research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research here. He joined the Chicago faculty in 1957.

He was the author of “Cyclical Behavior of the Term Structure of Interest Rates.”

He received an M.B.A. degree in 1948 and a doctorate in 1954, both from Chicago.

Surviving are his widow, a daughter and two brothers.

_______________

CORE EXAMINATION
MONEY, BANKING AND MONETARY POLICY

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Summer Quarter 1959
[August 4]

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER

Your Code Number and NOT your name
Name of Examination
Date of Examination

Results of the examination will be sent to you by letter.

Answer all questions. Time 3 hours.

1. Answer both a and b.
   1. During the calendar year 1958 the United States “lost” over $2 billion of gold.
      1. Explain precisely what this statement means.
      2. What factors might account for the loss?
      3. What monetary or other effects does the loss have?
   2. It has been urged that to stem further losses, the U.S. should raise the price of gold from its present official level of $35 an ounce to a higher level.
      Discuss the consequences of such a move if
      1. other major countries raise the price of gold in proportion or
      2. they do not.
2. Comment on both a and b.
   1. “Banks like to lend money. It’s their bread and butter. But sometimes loans have to be turned down. Remember, bankers are not lending their own money. Bank loans are made from money entrusted to banks by depositors.” (Business in Brief, Chase Manhattan Bank, No. 13, Oct. 1956, p. 8).
   2. “Treasury financing in 1954 was carried out with short- and intermediate-term securities, many of which were bought by commercial banks and served to increase the money supply.” Economic Report of the President, 1956.
3. Consider a closed economy which has a fiduciary currency fixed in nominal amount. In this economy, a tax on earnings is replaced by a tax of equal yield on real property. Trace the consequences to be expected for income, interest rates, and the level of prices.
4. Suppose all wages are escalated, in the sense of being linked continuously to a price index. It would be argued by many that government could not under such circumstances acquire real resources by issuing fiat currency. Do you agree? Justify your answer.

_______________

MONEY, BANKING AND MONETARY POLICY

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Summer Quarter 1959
[August 4]

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER

Your Code Number and NOT your name
Name of Examination
Date of Examination

Results of the examination will be sent to you by letter.

Answer all questions. Time: four hours.

1. Answer both a and b.
   1. During the calendar year 1958 the United States “lost” over $2 billion of gold.
      1. Explain precisely what this statement means.
      2. What factors might account for the loss?
      3. What monetary or other effects does the loss have?
   2. It has been urged that to stem further losses, the U.S. should raise the price of gold from its present official level of $35 an ounce to a higher level.
      Discuss the consequences of such a move if
      1. other major countries raise the price of gold in proportion or
      2. they do not.
2. Answer either a or b.
   1. 1. Sir John Clapham has asserted (The Bank of England, Vol. II, p. 421) that it was in the Bank of England that “the practice of central banking had originally been worked out.” To what extent do you agree?
      2. Explain and criticize what you consider the most important contribution to monetary thought before 1900.
3. Analyze, in terms of the income-expenditure approach, the effect of a reduction in the stock of money via (a) an open market sale by the Federal Reserve, (b) a surplus in the budget used to reduce the stock of money. Indicate the empirical magnitudes that must be known to predict the quantitative effect in each case.
4. Comment on both a and b.
   1. “Banks like to lend money. It’s their bread and butter. But sometimes loans have to be turned down. Remember, bankers are not lending their own money. Bank loans are made from money entrusted to banks by depositors.” (Business in Brief, Chase Manhattan Bank, No. 13, Oct. 1956, p. 8).
   2. “Treasury financing in 1954 was carried out with short- and intermediate-term securities, many of which were bought by commercial banks and served to increase the money supply.” Economic Report of the President, 1956.
5. Consider a closed economy which has a fiduciary currency fixed in nominal amount. In this economy, a tax on earnings is replaced by a tax of equal yield on real property. Trace the consequences to be expected for income, interest rates, and the level of prices.
6. Suppose all wages are escalated, in the sense of being linked continuously to a price index. It would be argued by many that government could not under such circumstances acquire real resources by issuing fiat currency. Do you agree? Justify your answer.

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 77, Folder 8 “University of Chicago, Econ 331”.

Image Source: Irwin Collier taking a break from archival work at the Hoover Institution.