Name Percy Greaves, Role Economist | Died August 13, 1984 Education Syracuse University | |
Books Mises Made Easier: A Glossary for Ludwig Von Mises\' Human Action | ||
Does Government Spending Bring Prosperity? | by Percy L. Greaves, Jr.
Percy L. Greaves Jr. (August 24, 1906 – August 13, 1984) was an American limited free-market economist, historian, and presidential candidate, who, in 1974, Murray Rothbard reported "believes in taxation, and... favors the draft" (see 'Purity And The Libertarian Party' in The Libertarian Forum, May 1974, pp 3 & 7.
Greaves was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 24, 1906. He received a B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from the Syracuse University School of Business Administration. He was a graduate student studying economics at Columbia University and New York University. He was financial editor and research economist for the United States News from 1934 to 1936. He resigned to take an executive job in Paris; he traveled widely in Europe until he returned to the US in 1938. He directed research and survey activities for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and did extensive political research.
From 1943 to 1945, Greaves was Research Director for the Republican National Committee. Greaves served as Chief of Minority Staff for the 1945–1946 "Joint Congressional Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack".
He authored several books on economics, including Understanding the Dollar Crisis (1973) and Mises Made Easier (1974). Greaves was a longtime associate and friend of Ludwig von Mises, regularly attending his seminars. Greaves was also a seminar speaker for the Foundation for Economic Education. Greaves served on the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) Editorial Advisory Committee and frequently wrote for IHR's The Journal of Historical Review, generally about Pearl Harbor revisionism.
In the 1974 elections, Greaves was an unsuccessful US Senate candidate in New York for the Free Libertarian Party.
Greaves was nominated as the 1980 presidential candidate for the American Party, with Frank L. Varnum as his running mate. They received 6,648 votes. The state parties of Kansas and Minnesota were unhappy with Greaves's moderate stance on abortion and put anti-Greaves tickets on their ballot lines, winning 1,555 and 6,136 votes respectively. Greaves had also sought the nomination of the American Independent Party but was defeated.
Greaves died of cancer and was survived by his wife, three children, and seven grandchildren.