Raymond Mikesell

Raymond Mikesell (born 1913 — died September 12, 2006) was an economics professor at the University of Oregon and the last surviving economist from the Bretton Woods conference.

Mikesell was born in Eaton, Ohio. He received a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University (OSU) and, in 1939, received a doctorate in economics from OSU.

During World War II, Mikesell became an adviser to Assistant Treasury Secretary Harry Dexter White. White led the United States' efforts to rebuild the global economy after the war.

Mikesell accompanied White to the Bretton Woods conference, where White and British economist John Maynard Keynes negotiated the design of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mikesell provided White with data that supported the United States' free trade position, as opposed to Keynes attempt to restore Britain's colonial interests.

Mikesell later served as an advisor to the U.S. State Department on currency reform in Saudi Arabia. He also served as an economic adviser to the Joint British-American Cabinet Committee on Palestine.

He served as a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations and the Organization of American States. He later argued for reform of the International Monetary Fund and abolishment of the World Bank, which he thought had become a useless and expensive bureaucracy.

Mikesell accepted the W.E. Miner Chair at the University of Oregon in 1957 and taught there until 1993. He was an avid tennis player and active outdoorsman, and he often took his doctoral students hiking before advising them on their dissertations as they sat around a campfire.

Mikesell died at his home in Eugene, Oregon, aged 93, from natural causes.

References

* [http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/09/14/a1.mikesellobit.0914.p1.php?section=nation_world Nolan, Rebecca. (2006, September 14). "UO professor, Bretton Woods economist, dies at age 93". The Register-Guard, Eugene]
* [http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-passings17.4sep17,1,6111254.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california Staff and Wire Reports. (2006, September 17). "Raymond Mikesell, 93; Economist Helped in Postwar Rebuilding". The Los Angeles Times]