SIDNEY L. JONES PAPERS, (1954) 1969-1992 (1995)

Sidney Jones started his career as a professor of finance at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. In 1969, Council of Economic Advisers chairman Paul McCracken (a former colleague on the Michigan faculty) recruited him to serve as a CEA senior economist and special assistant to the chairman.

Over the next 23 years, Jones served as a Federal government official in a variety of positions involving economic policy. During the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush administrations he worked in the White House or in the Commerce or Treasury Departments. Between these government positions, he held research positions with Washington think-tanks and was a visiting professor at various colleges and universities.

Jones worked in the White House as the deputy to Counsellor for Economic Affairs Kenneth Rush, beginning late in the Nixon administration and continuing through the early months of the Ford administration. His work as a key economic adviser to the Secretary of Commerce involved two different tenures -- 1973-74 (Secretary Frederick Dent) and 1983-85 (Secretary Malcolm Baldridge). He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in 1975-77 (Secretary William Simon) and again in 1989-93 (Secretary Nicholas Brady).

The Jones Papers do not contain a complete record of his work in these government positions. The strength of the collection lies in photocopies of selected policy memoranda that he wrote. Jones apparently saved copies of what he felt to be his most important memoranda. The collection does not include all memoranda he wrote, just this selection. They deal with the economy and related issues and are usually of a substantive nature and often lengthy. Particular areas of interest to Jones include government statistics on the economy, international trade, and foreign investment.

Also included in the Papers are an extensive set of his speeches and publications, personal correspondence, and newspaper clippings about Jones and his activities. There are only a few subject files on issues. A small amount of material concerns his teaching and research activities from those time periods when he did not hold a government position.

Related Materials (August 2002)
The Library has a Jones oral history in the Composite Oral History Accessions concerning his work with the Council of Economic Advisers. Another closely related collection is the files of Kenneth Rush. Jones served as his deputy in the Ford White House. Other key Library collections on Nixon and Ford administration economic policy include the Council of Economic Advisers Records, the L. William Seidman Files, and the Arthur Burns Papers. Some Jones materials from his work at the Council of Economic Advisers may appear in the Paul McCracken Papers at the Bentley Historical Library.