Alan Walters

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Professor Sir Alan Arthur Walters (b. June 17, 1926) is a British economist, best known as the former Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1981 to 1984 and again in 1989 after he had returned from America.

After serving in the British Army, Walters obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of London External Programme.^[1]

While a professor of econometrics and statistics at the University of Birmingham in the early 1960s, he was one of the first British economists to argue that money was "of considerable importance" to economic activity, a view that became more widespread during "the Great Inflation" of the 1970s.^[1] He argued forcefully that Britain should maintain strict monetary targets, and that the money supply should not be manipulated for political reasons.

After serving as a professor at the London School of Economics from 1967 to 1976, where he was Sir Ernest Cassel Professor of Economics, Walters became an economic adviser to the World Bank and a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University. In 1980 he was tapped to become an economic adviser to Margaret Thatcher, and left in 1984.

Although he returned to advise Thatcher in 1989, his differences with the policies of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, led to the resignation of both men in 1989.

Walters is currently Vice Chairman and Director of AIG Trading Group, Inc.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Isadore Barmash. "Johns Hopkins Lecturer Named Thatcher Adviser", New York Times, October 6, 1980, Business & Finance, Page D2 [1]

[edit] References

• WALTERS, Sir Alan Arthur International Who's Who. accessed September 1, 2006.