Jacques Léon Rueff (23 August 1896 – 23 April 1978) was a French
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
and adviser to the
French government.
Life
An influential French
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
and
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
thinker, Rueff was born the son of a well known Parisian physician and studied economics and mathematics at the
École Polytechnique. An important economic advisor to
President
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*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
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Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
, Rueff was also a major figure in the management of the French economy during the
Great Depression. In the early 1930s, he was as a financial attache in
London, in charge of the
Bank of France
The Bank of France ( French: ''Banque de France''), headquartered in Paris, is the central bank of France. Founded in 1800, it began as a private institution for managing state debts and issuing notes. It is responsible for the accounts of the ...
's sterling reserves.
He was a member of the
Société d’Économie Politique and was linked to the Éditions de Médicis.
He also taught at the
Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in the 1930s.
In 1941, Rueff, a Jew, was dismissed from his office as the deputy governor of the Bank of France as a result of
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
's new anti-Semitic laws. Rueff published several works of political economy and philosophy during his lifetime, including ''L'Ordre Social'', which appeared shortly after the
Liberation of Paris.
After the war Rueff became one of the leading French members of the classical liberal
Mont Pelerin Society, the president of the
Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (IARA), and the minister of state of
Monaco. He was strongly in favour of
European integration
European integration is the process of industrial, economic, political, legal, social, and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integration has primarily come about through the European Union and it ...
and served from 1952 to 1962 as a judge on the
European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Uni ...
.
He advised President
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
from 1958. That year, the Rueff Plan, also known as the Rueff-Pinay Plan, balanced the budget and secured the convertibility of the franc, which had been endangered by the strains of
decolonisation.
In the 1960s, Rueff became a major proponent of a return to the
gold standard and criticised of the use of the
dollar as a unit of reserve, which he warned would cause a worldwide
inflation. A member of the
Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, Rueff was elected to the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
in 1964. Foreseeing the emerging
European Community's Common Market, Rueff recommended cutting barriers to competition in his second report. Along with co-writer
Louis Armand and helped by an ''ad hoc'' committee of experts, the "plan Rueff-Armand", as the press called it, was published in 1960. The full title of the report is "Rapport du Comité pour la suppression des obstacles à l'expansion économique" (''Report on suppressing barriers to economic growth'').
Rueff always remained a firm opponent of
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
. His first critique appeared in the ''Economics Journal'', on the issue of transfers; specifically, German war reparations. Rueff was against such transfers in the late 1930s.
In 1947, he critiqued Keynes' ''magnum opus'', ''
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money''. In 1958, US economist
James Tobin
James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He de ...
became his main critic in the ''Quarterly Journal of Economics''. Almost 30 years later, Rueff, repeated his beliefs in "The End of the Keynesian Era", which was first published in ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
''.
Bibliography
Articles in journals
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Books
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Reports
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See also
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List of members of the European Court of Justice
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rueff, Jacques
1896 births
1978 deaths
Writers from Paris
19th-century French Jews
Conservatism in France
Ministers of State of Monaco
French economists
Members of the Académie Française
Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques
European Court of Justice judges
École Polytechnique alumni
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Fellows of the Econometric Society
French judges of international courts and tribunals
Member of the Mont Pelerin Society