Walter was born on May 24, 1885 in Manhattan, Kansas, United States, the son of Albert Alexander Stewart and Ella Winne. His interest in banking and monetary theory may have arisen from his childhood experiences. In the 1890's his father edited a Populist newspaper, The Republic, in Manhattan and was a close friend of Thomas Elmer Will, a "free silver" advocate and president of Kansas State Agricultural College.
He studied in high school at Neosho, Missouri. In 1905 he entered the University of Missouri, from which he received a B. A. degree in 1909. There he studied economics with Herbert J. Davenport and E. H. Downey.
Largely through the influence of Downey, Stewart was introduced to the institutional economics of Thorstein Veblen. After brief periods as instructor of economics at Missouri (1910 - 1911) and the University of Michigan (1911 - 1913) he returned to Missouri as an assistant professor of economics in 1913. He was offered the deanship of several universities, but decided to join Walton H. Hamilton as a professor of economics at Amherst College in 1916. As a member of the price section of the War Industries Board in 1918, Stewart wrote important papers showing the effectiveness of war-time price controls.
In the early 1920's Stewart established a reputation for his knowledge of the workings of the Federal Reserve System, particularly its potential for controlling the volume of credit and, thereby, prices and production. He warned, though, that the control over credit exercised by the Federal Reserve Board could not guarantee economic stabilization, for the actions of the board could be stymied by the decisions of the banking and business communities. If businessmen were pessimistic about the future, for example, lower interest rates might not induce them to increase investments.
In 1922 Stewart received the opportunity to put his central-banking theories into practice. He understood, perhaps better than anyone else in the country, how actions of the Federal Reserve Board affected the performance of the economy as a whole. For more than twenty-five years his 1923 report to the board established the main guidelines for the actions of the Federal Reserve System.
Although Stewart left the Federal Reserve System in 1926 to become vice-president of Case, Pomeroy and Company, a private investment house in New York City, he continued in public service. He appeared as an expert witness before many congressional committees and federal commissions. Concerned about the inflation of stock prices, he warned in the late 1920's against the extension of easy credit for speculation.
Intended to facilitate the settlement of international transactions and to assist the central banks of the various nations, the bank served as a model for the vast international financial mechanisms of the post - World War II era.
In 1930 Stewart returned to New York as chairman of the board of Case, Pomeroy and Company, a position he held until 1937.
In 1938 he became professor of economics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Throughout his career Stewart exemplified the ideal of an economist who lent his expertise to public service.
He died on March 6, 1958 in New York City.
Walter Winne Stewart was appointed director of the Division of Analysis and Research of the Federal Reserve Board as well as economic adviser to the board. Under Stewart's direction the division gained worldwide recognition for the quality of its analvtical and statistical reports. Besides, he was the first economic adviser of the Bank of England. While in London and serving as the personal representative of Owen D. Young, the chairman of the group that subsequently drew up a plan for the re-adjustment of German reparations, Stewart helped draft the provisions for the Bank for International Settlements.
His service during the war led him to believe that a reconstruction of economic theory was needed in order to provide an orderly transition to peace-time conditions.
Given the complexity of modern industrial society, Stewart believed that an adequate analysis of economic problems required a union of the careful use of statistics and consideration of the specific institutional context within which economic decisions were made.
Stewart's intelligence and his attractive personality soon won him the respect and recognition of the academic, business, and governmental communities.
In July 1912 Stewart married Helen Wynkoop, who had been a fellow student at Missouri. They had three children.
