Brimmer, Andrew F. 1926–
Andrew F. Brimmer 1926–
Economist
Founded Own Economic Consulting Firm
“Certain Problems a Matter of Choice”
The first black man to be named a governor of the Federal Reserve System, Andrew F. Brimmer is a noted economist who heads his own successful Washington consulting firm, Brimmer & Co., Inc., and is considered a specialist in federal reserve monetary policy. He is also a frequent commentator in newspapers and magazines on economics matters and topics related to the national and international economy, as well as on those especially relevant to the black economic community. For a number of years Brimmer has served on the board of economists of Black Enterprise, a monthly magazine devoted to black business in the United States. In his “Economic Perspectives” column Brimmer reports on trends and developments in national economics, and translates them to both individual blacks and the black business community. Brimmer has lent his insight to such topics as the Social Security system, discrimination in black business, black-owned banks, and personal financing.
Brimmer was born in 1926 in Newellton, Louisiana, the son of Andrew Brimmer, Sr., a sharecropper and warehouse worker. After graduating from high school in 1944 he moved to Washington state, and shortly thereafter enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving until 1946 in Hawaii. After his discharge, a federal education grant for servicemen permitted him to attend the University of Washington in Seattle, where he first pursued a degree in journalism. He later switched to the study of economics, convinced that it best allowed him an opportunity to understand the American way of life. Brimmer received his bachelor’s degree in 1950, and thereafter was awarded a John Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship with which he pursued his master’s degree. One of his early interests, which he explored in several papers, was foreign economies. In 1951 he received a Fulbright fellowship to study in India at the Delhi School of Economics and the University of Bombay, and subsequently published several journal articles on the Indian economy.
After returning to the United States Brimmer began working towards his doctoral degree in economics at Harvard University and at the same time was employed as a research assistant at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He married his wife, Doris, a graduate student at nearby Radcliffe College, in 1953. From 1955 through 1958 he
At a Glance…
Born Andrew Felton Brimmer, September 13,1926, in Newellton, LA; son of Andrew (a sharecropper and warehouse worker) and Vellar (Davis) Brimmer; married Doris Millicent Scott, 1953; children: Esther Diane. Education: University of Washington, B.A., 1950, M.A., 1951; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1957. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Unitarian.
Federal Reserve Bank, New York City, economist, 1955-58; Michigan State University, East Lansing, assistant professor, 1958-61; University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, Philadelphia, assistant professor, 1961-63; Securities Exchange Commission, consultant, 1962-63; Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, deputy assistant secretary, 1963-65, assistant secretary for economic affairs, 1965-66; Federal Reserve Board, governor, 1966-74; Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation visiting professor, 1974-76; Brimmer & Co., Inc. (economic consulting firm), president, 1976—. Member of board of economists and contributor of “Economic Perspectives” column, Black Enterprise magazine. Member of board of governors and vice chairman of Commodity Exchange Inc.; member of board of directors of Bank of America, American Security Bank, International Harvester Co., UAL-United Air Lines, Du Pont Co., and Gannett Company Inc; co-chairman of the Interracial Council for Business Opportunity. Military service: U.S. Army, 1944-46, served in Hawaii.
Awards: Named government man of the year by the National Business League, 1963; Arthur S. Flemming Award, Russwurm Award, both 1966; Horatio Alger Award, National Urban League Equal Opportunity Award, both 1974.
Addresses: Office —President, Brimmer & Co. Inc., 4400 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Washington, DC 20007.
gained valuable experience working as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and in 1956 was appointed to the fact-finding Central Banking Mission sent to the developing African country of Sudan. While Brimmer continued to pursue his research interests in foreign economies, he also became a specialist in the monetary practices and investment policies of American life insurance companies. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1957, he worked for five years as an assistant professor of economics at Michigan State University, during which time he published his book, Life Insurance Companies in the Capital Market.
In 1963 Brimmer began working with the U.S. Commerce Department in Washington, DC, and eventually was promoted to assistant secretary for economic affairs. At the Commerce Department he became further experienced in U.S. foreign investment policies and practice, as he was called upon to encourage American businesses to limit overseas investments as a way to reduce international deficits. In 1966 Brimmer’s government service reached its highest level when he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to fill a vacancy on the seven-member Federal Reserve System Board of Governors. One of the chief functions of the board is to develop federal-reserve policy as well as supervise the budget and operations of the nation’s twelve District Reserve Banks. Brimmer served on the Board during the inflationary boom of 1964-65, and was a primary proponent and spokesman for the Board’s decision to tighten the money supply by raising interest rates and decreasing the amount of loan funds available to businesses. He also voiced his support for curbing inflation through a tax increase, which occurred in 1968 when President Johnson authorized a ten-percent tax surcharge.
Founded Own Economic Consulting Firm
Brimmer’s tenure with the Federal Reserve Board lasted until 1974, at which time he became the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation professor at Harvard University’s School of Business Administration. Two years later he founded his own economic consulting firm, Brimmer and Co., Inc., which specializes in federal reserve monetary policy. Combining his interest and experience in foreign economies, Brimmer has also become an authority on the world banking system, especially in the area of foreign debt obligations of Third World countries. In the 1983 Joseph I. Lubin Memorial Lecture at New York University, Brimmer outlined the common circumstances surrounding the crippling, high-interest loans owed by less-developed countries, their roots in the oil crisis of the late 1970s, and the role of U.S. commercial banks and the International Monetary Fund in moderating their resolution. Brimmer warned, however, against viewing the problem in general terms. “Different countries face a variety of particular obstacles which arise from specific circumstances related to their respective economies,” he stated in The World Banking System: Outlook in a Context of Crisis. “Consequently, it would not only be futile but harmful as well to attempt to mandate a common, universal solution to the debt troubles plaguing developing countries.”
In recent years Brimmer has gained exposure as a leading voice on economic matters relating to blacks and the black business community. In the “Economic Perspectives” articles he contributes to Black Enterprise, Brimmer distills national economic topics for a general audience, reports authoritative facts to illustrate his points, and discusses economic topics that specifically pertain to blacks. Among the areas he has discussed are the Social Security system, the soundness of black-owned banks, the implications of free-trade agreements for minority business, and the persistent problems of discrimination toward black businesses. Brimmer’s articles serve as an informative voice for the black economic community; regarding the 1990 collapse of New York City’s Freedom Bank, the nation’s fourth-largest black-owned bank, Brimmer suggested that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) engaged in the most severe resolution procedures allowed, thereby limiting the amount of money recouped by depositors—a trend, according to Brimmer, used by the FDIC in resolving the failure of other black-owned banks.
“Certain Problems a Matter of Choice”
Over the years Brimmer has decried discrimination against black-owned businesses and in minority hiring processes—yet he cautions against viewing discrimination as the primary culprit behind economic problems faced by black Americans. In a 1985 speech quoted in the Negro Almanac, Brimmer warned that deficiencies in both education and marketable skills were likewise to blame, and argued a controversial stance that “certain problems are not a matter of circumstance but a matter of choice for black people.” He similarly warned in a 1985 Ebony article that by the year 2000 competition for service labor would be particularly intense. “Most jobs will require a much higher degree of skills, and … will be linked much more directly to computers and their operation,” Brimmer wrote. “Yet, if Blacks continue to accumulate marketable skills at the pace that has prevailed in recent years, they will not fare well in the years ahead.”
In addition to his duties as economic consultant and spokesman for the black economic community, Brimmer serves on the board of directors of a number of American corporations and banks. He has received various honors over the years for his work and is also a member of several economic associations. In 1989 he was re-named president of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and the following year became chairman of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC.
Selected writings
The Setting of Entrepreneurship in India, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies, c. 1950s.
Some Studies in Monetary Policy, Interest Rates, and the Investment Behavior of Life Insurance Companies, [Cambridge, MA], 1957.
Life Insurance Companies in the Capital Market, Michigan State University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, 1962.
The World Banking System: Outlook in a Context of Crisis, New York University Press, 1985.
Sources
Books
Brimmer, Andrew F., The World Banking System: Outlook in a Context of Crisis, New York University Press, 1985.
The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the African American, 5th edition, Gale, 1989.
Periodicals
Black Enterprise, November 1988; November 1990; March 1991; July 1991; September 1991; December 1991.
Ebony, August 1985.
Jet, February 27, 1989; November 12, 1990; May 13, 1991.
New York Times, April 10, 1988; October 16, 1988.
—Michael E. Mueller
Brimmer, Andrew
Brimmer, Andrew 1926-
Andrew Felton Brimmer, born in Louisiana in 1926 to sharecropping parents, became one of America’s premier public economists, serving as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1966 to 1974 and as chairman of the Financial Control Board of the District of Columbia in 1996. He also founded and manages Brimmer and Associates, a private consulting company with many corporate clients since 1977.
In 1944 the young Brimmer moved to the state of Washington and worked as an electrician’s helper in the shipyards before joining the U.S. Army for two years. He later earned his BA (1950) and MA (1951) degrees in economics from the University of Washington. After a year of scholarly work in India supported by a Fulbright grant, he completed his PhD in economics in 1957 at Harvard University. Following a second Fulbright grant in 1958 that allowed him to help establish the Central Bank of Sudan, he served for five years as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In 1963 President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) appointed Brimmer to the post of deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs in the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this position, he authored an influential study documenting the effects of racial discrimination in public accommodations on interstate commerce, thus providing the constitutional justification for federal regulation of activities that otherwise might have been considered purely local matters to be left to the states. Brimmer summarized his contribution by noting that:
What I did was to design an [e]conomic [m]odel which enabled me to examine the differential impact of segregation and discrimination on African Americans—from the point of view of travel, entertainment, consumer expenditure patterns, and the level of money income.… I was able to do computer simulations that tracked travel along three separate routes from Washington, D.C., … to Miami, Florida, … New Orleans, and … Chicago. The net result was that we were able to demonstrate that African Americans had to travel about twice as far and roughly twice as long as white Americans. This violated the Guidelines of the National Safety Council.
Once the Public Accommodations Section of the Civil Rights Bill became law in the summer of 1964, it was challenged by the defenders of segregation. The case quickly got to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously upheld its constitutionality. The Court based its decision substantially on the testimony I prepared. (U.S. Supreme Court 1964; Brimmer 2006)
Brimmer has returned frequently to issues of black economic progress, arguing strenuously for more black entrepreneurship, increased adoption of the corporate mode of organization (Brimmer 1973), strong educational achievement (Horatio Alger Association 1974), and careful attention to personal finances. He has simultaneously noted that the economic costs of unequal treatment accorded African Americans has significantly hampered access to higher-paying jobs and slowed the rate of black entry to managerial professions. Noting the national interest in ending unequal treatment, he argued that such discrimination deprived the U.S. economy of $215 billion in 1991, roughly 3.8 percent of GDP (Brimmer 1995).
In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) appointed Brimmer to a fourteen-year term with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (of which he served eight). He was the first African American to serve in this elite position. Recognizing Brimmer’s objectivity and analytical skills, President Johnson declared:
I do not expect Dr. Brimmer to be an easy-money man or a tight-money man.… I expect Dr. Brimmer to be a right-money man, one who, I believe, will carefully and cautiously and intelligently evaluate the Nation’s needs and the needs of all of its people, and recommend the policies which his conscience and his judgment tells him will best serve the national interest. (Johnson 1966)
Brimmer returned to public service in 1996. Willing to grapple with the daunting budgetary crisis of the nation’s capital, Brimmer accepted President Bill Clinton’s appointment to serve as chairman of the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority (the Control Board) in 1996. The Control Board was given sweeping authority over nine major city departments, including public works, health, education, and welfare. The Control Board met with resistance from some sectors of the District, including from those who resented the loss of the limited sovereignty that the District had obtained in 1973 and from public sector trade unions that objected to the fiscal austerity that was the federal mandate given to the Control Board.
As chairman of the Control Board, Brimmer was vested with a wide range of powers to deal with the fiscal deficits that the city had incurred. It was a contentious period. For instance, during his tenure, Brimmer sought as a top priority to improve the D.C. school system, which was in shambles (District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority 1996). The Control Board took the institutional step of transferring authority from the Board of Education to an Emergency Transitional Education Board of Trustees that it had created. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Control Board could not legally do this, modifying Brimmer’s efforts at educational reform. Brimmer’s critics were harsh on both his management style and his policies. One even argued that “Brimmer’s imperiousness runs up and down the organization: never retreat, never admit you were wrong, and never, ever say you’re sorry. Brimmer believes that he and his cohorts are on a mission and that he has a sovereign right to run over all objections” (Stabile et al. 1998). During this period, controversies were legion. For instance, in 1997 Brimmer was forced by outraged District residents, Control Board members, and members of Congress to withdraw approval of a $625,000 lease of a luxury suite requested by the city’s elected mayor. At the end of his term, Brimmer was succeeded by Alice Rivlin. Brimmer returned to his consulting and scholarly role, proud that he had, in his view, resisted the politicization of important economic and management issues facing the District of Columbia.
A pioneering economist, Brimmer was elected to the Washington Academy of Sciences in 1991 and has held leading elected roles in the American Economics Association, the Eastern Economics Association, and the North American Economics and Finance Association. He has served as an economics professor at Michigan State University, the Wharton School of Finance, and Harvard University, and holds a faculty position as the Wilmer D. Barrett Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Brimmer has also been a member of the Black Enterprise Board of Economists and the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and he continues to serve as chairman of the Tuskegee University Board of Trustees.
Brimmer’s scholarly interests have focused on monetary issues (see, e.g., Brimmer 1986, 1989, 1993, 1998) and the economic costs to society of racial discrimination (Brimmer 1973, 1995, 2000). Brimmer has long been known for his rigorous mentorship of promising young economists, especially African American scholars. He has brought many of them into his firm, where they have absorbed the critical role of rigorous evaluation of data in advancing their professional economics careers.
No stranger to the private sector, Brimmer’s firm has provided expert economic analysis and testimony for many of the nation’s leading corporations. He has held board positions in such companies as DuPont, Gannett, United Airlines, BlackRock Mutual Funds, and Bank of America. He remains a leading force in the economics profession and corporate America.
SEE ALSO American Economic Association; Discrimination, Racial; Federal Reserve System, U.S.; Johnson, Lyndon B.; National Economic Association; Policy, Monetary; Supreme Court, U.S.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES
Brimmer, Andrew F. 1973. The Road Ahead: Prospects for Blacks in Business. Journal of Negro History 58 (2): 187–203.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 1986. International Banking and Domestic Economic Policies: Perspectives in Debt and Development. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 1989. Central Banking and Systemic Risks in Capital Markets. Journal of Economic Perspectives 3 (2): 3–16.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 1993. Origins and Causes of the S&L Debacle: A Blueprint for Reform. Washington, DC: National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 1995. Economic Costs of Discrimination against Black Americans. In Economic Perspectives on Affirmative Action, ed. Margaret C. Simms, 11–29. Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 1998. Financial Regulation and the Fragility of the Banking System. North American Journal of Economics & Finance 9 (1): 105–119.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 2000. Economic Prospects for African Americans, 2001-2010: Politics and Promises. Washington, DC: Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies.
Brimmer, Andrew F. 2006. Andrew F. Brimmer: Kenneth Boulding Fellow. Speech delivered at the American Academy of Political and Social Science Installation of Fellows. http://www.aapss.org/section.cfm/1141/1143.
SECONDARY SOURCES
District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority. 1996. Children in Crisis: A Report on the Failure of D.C.’s Public Schools. Washington, DC: Author.
Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. 1974. Andrew F. Brimmer.
http://www.horatioalger.com/members/member_info.cfm?memberid=bri74.
Johnson, Lyndon B. 1966. Remarks at the Swearing In of Andrew F. Brimmer as a Member, Federal Reserve Board, March 9. The American Presidency Project, eds. John Woolley and Gerhard Peters. University of California at Santa Barbara.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27477.
Stabile, Tom, Ken Cummins, Jonetta Rose Barras, et al. 1998. Step Down. Washington City Paper (February 20).
U.S. Supreme Court. 1964. Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States et al. 379 U.S. 241. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. No. 515.
Padma Venkatachalam
Rodney D. Green
Brimmer, Andrew F.
Andrew F. Brimmer
1926—
Economist
The first black man to be named a governor of the Federal Reserve System, Andrew F. Brimmer is a noted economist who heads his own successful Washington consulting firm, Brimmer & Co., Inc., and is considered a specialist in federal reserve monetary policy. He is also a frequent commentator in newspapers and magazines on economics matters and topics related to the national and international economy, as well as on those especially relevant to the black economic community. For a number of years Brimmer has served on the board of economists of Black Enterprise, a monthly magazine devoted to black business in the United States. In his "Economic Perspectives" column Brimmer reports on trends and developments in national economics, and translates them to both individual blacks and the black business community. Brimmer has lent his insight to such topics as the Social Security system, discrimination in black business, black-owned banks, and personal financing.
Excelled in School
Brimmer was born in 1926 in Newellton, Louisiana, the son of Andrew Brimmer, Sr., a sharecropper and warehouse worker. After graduating from high school in 1944 he moved to the state of Washington, and shortly thereafter enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving until 1946 in Hawaii. After his discharge, a federal education grant for servicemen permitted him to attend the University of Washington in Seattle, where he first pursued a degree in journalism. He later switched to the study of economics, convinced that it best allowed him an opportunity to understand the American way of life. Brimmer received his bachelor's degree in 1950, and thereafter was awarded a John Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship with which he pursued his master's degree. One of his early interests, which he explored in several papers, was foreign economies. In 1951 he received a Fulbright fellowship to study in India at the Delhi School of Economics and the University of Bombay, and subsequently published several journal articles on the Indian economy.
After returning to the United States Brimmer began working towards his doctoral degree in economics at Harvard University and at the same time was employed as a research assistant at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He married his wife, Doris, a graduate student at nearby Radcliffe College, in 1953. From 1955 through 1958 he gained valuable experience working as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and in 1956 was appointed to the fact-finding Central Banking Mission sent to the developing African country of Sudan. While Brimmer continued to pursue his research interests in foreign economies, he also became a specialist in the monetary practices and investment policies of American life insurance companies. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1957, he worked for five years as an assistant professor of economics at Michigan State University, during which time he published his book, Life Insurance Companies in the Capital Market. In 1963 Brimmer began working with the U.S. Commerce Department in Washington, DC, and eventually was promoted to assistant secretary for economic affairs. At the Commerce Department he became further experienced in U.S. foreign investment policies and practice, as he was called upon to encourage American businesses to limit overseas investments as a way to reduce international deficits. In 1966 Brimmer's government service reached its highest level when he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to fill a vacancy on the seven-member Federal Reserve System Board of Governors. One of the chief functions of the board is to develop federal-reserve policy as well as supervise the budget and operations of the nation's twelve District Reserve Banks. Brimmer served on the Board during the inflationary boom of 1964-65, and was a primary proponent and spokesman for the Board's decision to tighten the money supply by raising interest rates and decreasing the amount of loan funds available to businesses. He also voiced his support for curbing inflation through a tax increase, which occurred in 1968 when President Johnson authorized a ten-percent tax surcharge.
At a Glance …
Born Andrew Felton Brimmer on September 13, 1926, in Newellton, LA; son of Andrew (a sharecropper and warehouse worker) and Vellar (Davis) Brimmer; married Doris Millicent Scott, 1953; children: Esther Diane. Education: University of Washington, BA, 1950; University of Washington, MA, 1951; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1957. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Unitarian. Military service: U.S. Army, 1944-46, served in Hawaii.
Career: Federal Reserve Bank, New York City, economist, 1955-58; Michigan State University, East Lansing, assistant professor, 1958-61; University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, Philadelphia, assistant professor, 1961-63; Securities Exchange Commission, consultant, 1962-63; Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, deputy assistant secretary, 1963-65, assistant secretary for economic affairs, 1965-66; Federal Reserve Board, governor, 1966-74; Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation visiting professor, 1974-76; University of Massachusetts at Amherst, professor; Brimmer & Co., Inc. (economic consulting firm), president, 1976–.
Selected memberships: Black Enterprise magazine, member of board of economists and contributor of "Economic Perspectives" column; Bank of America, BlackRock Mutual Funds, American Security Bank, UAL-United Air Lines, Du Pont Co., and Gannett Company Inc., member of board of directors for all.
Awards: Named government man of the year by the National Business League, 1963; Arthur S. Flemming Award, Russwurm Award, both 1966; Horatio Alger Award, National Urban League Equal Opportunity Award, both 1974; Fulbright 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer, Ghana and Nigeria, 1986.
Addresses: Office— President, Brimmer & Co. Inc., 4400 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Washington, DC 20007.
Brimmer's tenure with the Federal Reserve Board lasted until 1974, at which time he became the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation professor at Harvard University's School of Business Administration. Two years later he founded his own economic consulting firm, Brimmer and Co., Inc., which specializes in federal reserve monetary policy. Combining his interest and experience in foreign economies, Brimmer has also become an authority on the world banking system, especially in the area of foreign debt obligations of Third World countries. In the 1983 Joseph I. Lubin Memorial Lecture at New York University, Brimmer outlined the common circumstances surrounding the crippling, high-interest loans owed by less-developed countries, their roots in the oil crisis of the late 1970s, and the role of U.S. commercial banks and the International Monetary Fund in moderating their resolution. Brimmer warned, however, against viewing the problem in general terms. "Different countries face a variety of particular obstacles which arise from specific circumstances related to their respective economies," he stated in The World Banking System: Outlook in a Context of Crisis. "Consequently, it would not only be futile but harmful as well to attempt to mandate a common, universal solution to the debt troubles plaguing developing countries."
Respected for His Economic Expertise
In recent years Brimmer has gained exposure as a leading voice on economic matters relating to blacks and the black business community. In the "Economic Perspectives" articles he contributes to Black Enterprise, Brimmer distills national economic topics for a general audience, reports authoritative facts to illustrate his points, and discusses economic topics that specifically pertain to blacks. Among the areas he has discussed are the Social Security system, the soundness of black-owned banks, the implications of free-trade agreements for minority business, and the persistent problems of discrimination toward black businesses. Brimmer's articles serve as an informative voice for the black economic community; regarding the 1990 collapse of New York City's Freedom Bank, the nation's fourth-largest black-owned bank, Brimmer suggested that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) engaged in the most severe resolution procedures allowed, thereby limiting the amount of money recouped by depositors—a trend, according to Brimmer, used by the FDIC in resolving the failure of other black-owned banks. He continued to voice his concerns and to propose solutions to the economic life of blacks through magazine articles and his service on the boards of a variety of governmental committees and private businesses.
Over the years Brimmer has decried discrimination against black-owned businesses and in minority hiring processes—yet he cautions against viewing discrimination as the primary culprit behind economic problems faced by black Americans. In a 1985 speech quoted in the Negro Almanac, Brimmer warned that deficiencies in both education and marketable skills were likewise to blame, and argued a controversial stance that "certain problems are not a matter of circumstance but a matter of choice for black people." He similarly warned in a 1985 Ebony article that by the year 2000 competition for service labor would be particularly intense. "Most jobs will require a much higher degree of skills, and…will be linked much more directly to computers and their operation," Brimmer wrote. When speaking in 1994 specifically about the limited number of black governors at the Federal Reserve Board, Brimmer noted that qualifications are the key to success. "I do not advocate diversity because there is something uniquely related to race, ethnicity or gender which will be brought to the Board," Brimmer told Black Enterprise. "The demand is for competent people and if they bring something else, that is a plus." But Brimmer warned in Black Enterprise in 1998 that, "Down the road, as competition increases, it will not just be blacks versus whites, it's going to be blacks versus everybody else, and unless conditions change dramatically, we risk dropping out at the bottom."
In addition to his duties as economic consultant and spokesman for the black economic community, Brimmer serves on the board of directors of a number of American corporations and banks. He has received various honors over the years for his work and is also a member of several economic associations. In 1989 he was re-named president of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and the following year became chairman of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, a post that he served faithfully until his resignation in 2001. In 1995 President Clinton appointed Brimmer to head a five-person control board, called the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority, that helped Washington, DC, out of a severe budgetary deficit over the next several years. Brimmer continues his work to encourage black Americans to succeed and prosper.
Selected writings
The Setting of Entrepreneurship in India, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies, c. 1950s.
Some Studies in Monetary Policy, Interest Rates, and the Investment Behavior of Life Insurance Companies, Cambridge, MA, 1957.
Life Insurance Companies in the Capital Market, Michigan State University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, 1962.
The World Banking System: Outlook in a Context of Crisis, New York University Press, 1985.
International Banking and Domestic Economic Policies: Perspectives in Debt and Development, University of California Press, 1986.
"Economic Cost of Discrimination Against Black Americans," in Economic Perspectives on Affirmative Action, edited by Margaret C. Simms, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 1995
Sources
Books
Brimmer, Andrew F., The World Banking System: Outlook in a Context of Crisis, New York University Press, 1985.
The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the African American, 5th edition, Gale, 1989.
Periodicals
Black Enterprise, November 1988; November 1990; March 1991; July 1991; September 1991; December 1991; July 1994; January 1997.
Ebony, August 1985.
Jet, February 27, 1989; November 12, 1990; May 13, 1991; September 3, 2001.
New York Times, April 10, 1988; October 16, 1988.
—Michael E. Mueller and
Sara Pendergast