Burns, Arthur F. (Arthur Frank), 1904-1987

Arthur Frank Burns (1904-1987) became President Eisenhower's chief economic adviser, serving as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and was given much credit for the 1955 economic miniboom. At the end of Eisenhower's first term in 1956, Burns resigned his official position and returned to his post at Columbia University, but continued to advise Eisenhower on an unofficial basis. During the 1960 presidential campaign, Burns was part of the "Scholars," the academics advising Republican candidate, Vice-president Richard Nixon.

Economist; chair of the Federal Reserve System from 1970 to 1978.

Austrian-born economist, policy maker, and diplomat; chair of U.S. Federal Reserve Board from 1970-1978 and economic advisor for six U.S. presidencies.

Arthur Frank Burns, renowned economist, policy maker and diplomat, was born into an Austro-Hungarian Jewish family in Stanislau, Galicia (now part of Ukraine) in 1904. His family immigrated to the United States in 1914 and settled in New Jersey. In 1925 Burns received A.B. and A.M. degrees in economics from Columbia University. He worked under renowned economist Wesley Clair Mitchell and received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia in 1934. Between 1926 and 1944 he taught at Columbia and Rutgers. He was named full professor at Rutgers University in 1943. Burns's economic thought was inspired by Keynes, yet he believed that the Keynesian model was simplistic and totalistic as, according to Burns, each industry had its own cycle, hence government intervention should be taken selectively and upon detailed statistical analysis. Burns joined the National Bureau of Economics as Research Associate in 1930; in later years he served as the Director of Research (1945-1953), President (1957-1967), and Chairman (1967-1968) of this institution.

Burns's political involvement with the Republican Party began with his support for Eisenhower in the 1952 election. Burns acted as the Chairman of the Council of Advisors to the President (1953-1956), Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Small Business (1956), and as member of U.S. Advisory Council on Social Security Financing (1957-1958).

Burns was also an economic advisor to Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign and acted as Counselor at the beginning of his presidency (1969-1970). He was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in February 1970 and held the position until March 1978. Meanwhile, he also served as the Head of the Committee on Interest and Dividends (1971-1974), a committee founded as part of Nixon's Economic Stabilization Program; as the U.S. Alternate Governor to the International Monetary Fund (1973-1978); and as a member of Emergency Loan Guarantee Board (1971-1978). The Nixon administration took over an economy in crisis, and Burns proposed a recovery program, which in the early days seemed to be effective. This period and Burns's reactions to its crises are well-documented in the correspondence and personal journals found in this collection. Between 1977-1981 and 1985-1987, Burns served as a distinguished scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy, where he taught and wrote. In 1981, Ronald Reagan appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, a position he held until May 16, 1985. Burns passed away on June 26, 1987 in Baltimore, Maryland. Burns's theories have inspired many economists, including his renowned student Milton Friedman.