Joseph Dodge

Who was Joseph Dodge?

Joseph Morrell Dodge was a chairman of the Detroit Bank, now Comerica. He later served as an economic adviser for postwar economic stabilization programs in Germany and Japan, headed the American delegation to the Austrian Advisory commission, and worked as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Dodge formed economic reconstruction plans for West Germany after World War II, and implemented financial reforms in 1948. He later moved to Japan, having drafted another economic stabilization plan, widely known as the Dodge Line, in December 1948, as the financial adviser to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur. Arriving in February 1949 to implement these reforms, Dodge served as a "lightning-rod" to redirect fiscal criticism away from MacArthur and chose to keep a low profile.