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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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William E. Simon
(1974 - 1977)
William E. Simon (1927-2000) served as Deputy Secretary
of the Treasury the under Secretary George P. Shultz and, beginning in 1973,
served concurrently as the director of the Federal Energy Office during
the oil shortage. He was named Secretary of the Treasury by
President Nixon in 1974 and continued under President Gerald Ford. Domestically,
he faced a growing economic slump as he entered office. In response to the
oil crisis, he convinced the oil-producing nations to place their petrodollar
surpluses in U.S. bank deposits but discouraged them from direct investment
in U.S. corporations.
 Before and during the 1974-1975 recession, the most
severe contraction of industrial production since the Great Depression,
Simon was the administration's spokesman for austerity, fiscal constraint,
and maintenance of stable capital markets. In foreign affairs, Simon continued
the policies begun under Shultz of pressuring Europe and the Eastern Bloc
with U.S. economic weapons and thereby keeping international policy initiative
in the hands of the United States. Simon resigned at the end of Ford's
term.
About the Artist
Everett Raymond Kinstler is a well-known painter
of official Washington, whose portraits hang in the halls of the departments
of Navy, Defense, and State, in addition to Treasury. He also painted
the official presidential portrait of Gerald Ford, now in the White House.
He has been popular with recent Treasury Secretaries, painting six over
four successive administrations. His portrait of William E. Simon was
begun at the Treasury Department, where Kinstler made sketches as Simon
worked. "Simon had enormous energy and was able to do many things at once,"
Kinstler commented. "I watched him detail the night's dinner plans, New
York's financial problems and a trip to the Far East." The portrait was
completed in 1977 in Kinstler's New York studio.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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