Former New York Fed board president dies

NEW YORK, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Anthony Solomon, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has died. He was 88.

Solomon, a financial policy adviser in three presidential administrations and at the World Bank, died Friday at his home in Manhattan of kidney failure, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Solomon was perhaps best known for dealing with the complexities of the American and foreign economies.

"I've got one of the best people in government working on this problem," President Jimmy Carter said of Solomon in November 1977 after naming him chairman of an interagency task force to support the distressed steel industry.

Two years later, as the U.S. Treasury Department's under secretary for monetary affairs, Solomon played a key role in planning the freezing of Iranian financial assets after the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Solomon, an Arlington, N.J., native, was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1980 to 1985.

He is survived by a son and daughter.