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March is Women's History Month!

Anna Schwartz, 1915-2012

"Anna did all of the work, and I got most of the recognition," the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said.

Anna was Anna Schwartz, Friedman's co-author. She died today at age 96.

Friedman and Schwartz wrote A Monetary History of the United States, 1867 -1960. Among other things, the book argued that the Federal Reserve helped to cause the Great Depression by mismanaging the money supply.

Ben Bernanke once told Friedman and Schwartz:

Regarding the Great Depression, you're right: We did it. We're very sorry, but thanks to you, we won't do it again.

Initially, Schwartz praised Bernanke's response to the 2008 financial crisis. But Schwartz eventually became critical of what she saw as overly loose policies.

Today, we scrutinize the actions of our central bank to see where our economy is headed. That's in some measure due to Anna Schwartz's scholarship.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Zoe Chace explains the mysteries of the global economy for NPR's Planet Money. As a reporter for the team, Chace knows how to find compelling stories in unlikely places, including a lollipop factory in Ohio struggling to stay open, a pasta plant in Italy where everyone calls in sick, and a recording studio in New York mixing Rihanna's next hit.