Gerald R. Ford Library 1000 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2114 www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov

ARTHUR F. BURNS

Counsellor to President Nixon, 1969‑70; Chairman,

Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1970‑78:

Papers, (1957) 1969-78

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

The collection includes extensive files on U.S. domestic and international financial and monetary affairs, bank regulation and reform, administration of the Federal Reserve, and related issues. It also includes Dr. Burns' 1969-70 files from the Nixon White House on domestic and economic issues. Note: later accessions of Burns Papers, mostly covering 1979-87, are not described here and are not yet available to research.

QUANTITY

187 linear feet (ca. 374,000 pages)

DONOR

Arthur F. Burns (accession numbers 83-7, 86-28, 87-37, and 88-31)

ACCESS

Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR 1256).

COPYRIGHT

Dr. Burns has donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

Prepared by: Sandra Raub Mitchell, September 1985

Revised by: Karen Rohrer, July 1987; William McNitt, August 1994

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Arthur F. Burns

April 27, 1904 Born in Stanislau, Austria. The Burns family immigrated to the United States when Burns was 10 years old, settling in Bayonne, New Jersey.

1925 Received A.B. and A.M. degrees in economics from Columbia University

1926-27 Lecturer in economics at Columbia

1927-44 Economics instructor at Rutgers University. Burns advanced through the ranks and was named a full professor there in 1943.

1930-68 In addition to teaching, Burns joined the staff of the National Bureau of Economics as a research associate in 1930. He later served a/s the institute's director of research, 1945‑1953; president, 1957‑1967; and chairman, 1967‑1968.

1934 Received Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University

1941-42 Visiting professor of economics at Columbia University

1944-69 Professor of economics at Columbia University. Burns was named the University's John Bates Clark Professor in 1959.

1953-56 Appointed Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers by President Eisenhower. Also served as chairman, Advisory Board on Economic Growth and Stability.

1956 Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Small Business

1957‑58 Member, U.S. Advisory Council on Social Security Financing

1961-66 Member, President's Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy

1968 Economics adviser to presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon

Jan. 1969-Jan. 1970 Counsellor to President Nixon. Burns also served on the Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy

Feb. 1970-Mar. 1978 Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Sept. 1973-Jan. 1978 U.S. Alternate Governor to the International Monetary Fund

Aug. 1971-Jan. 1978 Member, Emergency Loan Guarantee Board

Oct. 1971-Apr. 1974 Head of the Committee on Interest and Dividends, part of Nixon's Economic Stabilization Program

1977-81 & 1985-87 Distinguished Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

1981-85 U.S. Ambassador to West Germany

June 26, 1987 Died at age 83 of complications following coronary bypass surgery.

Publications include: Production Trends in the United States Since 1870 (1934); Measuring Business Cycles (with Wesley C. Mitchell, 1946); Frontiers of Economic Knowledge (1954); Prosperity Without Inflation (1957); The Management of Prosperity (1966); and The Business Cycle in a Changing World (1969).

INTRODUCTION

Origin and Arrangement of the Burns Papers

The papers were created and accumulated by Dr. Burns while he was Counsellor to President Nixon, 1969‑70, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, 1970‑78. Dr. Burns donated the papers to the Ford Library in 1981. The Library has retained the original file scheme of the papers, and material on a given topic is often located in several different file segments or series. For example, material on legislative issues of interest to the Federal Reserve can be found in the Federal Reserve Board Subject File, in the Congressional Correspondence File, in files on staff members concerned with congressional liaison, and in files relating to Burns' congressional testimony.

White House Files, 1969‑70

This series relates to Burns' functions as Counsellor to President Nixon from January 1969 through January 1970. Known as Nixon's chief of staff for domestic affairs, Burns was charged with the development of domestic programs and policies. As head of the White House Office of Program Development he was also in charge of establishing task forces on numerous domestic issues. The series documents the whole range of domestic issues, as well as some aspects of foreign affairs such as trade and aid. Of particular significance are files on agriculture, labor relations, poverty and welfare, the federal budget process, campus unrest, commerce questions, housing and construction, urban renewal, education, unemployment, and the economy.

Federal Reserve Board Files, 1970‑78

The files, arranged into seventeen series, reflect the wide range of responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System. [Appendix A outlines the structure of the Federal Reserve System and its relationship with the executive and legislative branches of government.] While the System's interests lie mainly in the area of monetary affairs, the collection also includes a substantial amount of material on fiscal matters collected by the Fed for use in projecting future economic developments. Some major areas of concern to the Federal Reserve Board, documented in the papers, are described below.

Domestic and International Monetary Policy

Included is material on both the formation and conduct of the nation's monetary policy such as minutes and background files for meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee; correspondence with the Federal Reserve Banks, especially the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; correspondence with the White House and Treasury Department; and material concerning Federal Reserve interactions with foreign central banks and international monetary organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Group of Ten, and the Bank for International Settlements.

Domestic monetary issues of concern to the Fed included the level of the nation's money supply, the availability of credit, and the level of interest rates. The Federal Reserve Board (although possessing virtually no statutory authority to make international monetary policy) also considered international issues such as the balance of payments, swap arrangements with other central banks, U.S. gold policy, the recycling of surplus OPEC funds, and multilateral assistance to countries in financial difficulty, particularly Italy, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The Board was also represented on the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policy.

There is a particularly large body of valuable material relating to international monetary reform. The United States' deteriorating balance of payments position in the early 1970s led to President Nixon's unilateral suspension of the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold on August 15, 1971. The Burns Papers include Federal Reserve and Treasury memoranda discussing various reform proposals and files on numerous international meetings which were subsequently held to discuss international monetary reform. Included is material on the December 1971 Smithsonian meeting where the dollar was devalued for the first time since 1934 and on meetings of the Group of Ten and the IMF held in the next several years. In March 1973, after the dollar was devalued a second time, a new international system of floating exchange rates was agreed to at a Paris meeting of the Group of Ten and European Economic Community. Final agreement on abolishing the official price of gold and on amending Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement came at a meeting of the IMF Interim Committee in Jamaica in January 1976, shortly following French-American discussions on the matter at the Rambouillet summit.

Banking Regulation and Reform

Present in the files is correspondence with other federal bank regulatory agencies -- the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and staff memoranda concerning banking regulations enforced by the Fed.

Of particular interest is the material relating to bank regulatory reform. During the 1970s Congress considered a number of legislative proposals relating to reform of the financial industry. Many recent innovations in banking such as the removal of Regulation Q interest rate ceilings on certificates of deposit, the payment of interest on checking accounts and the approval of negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts nationwide, and the development of creative mortgage financing were debated during Burns' tenure as Fed Chairman. The Burns Papers include material on the Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation (Hunt Commission) established in 1970 by President Nixon to study problems experienced by financial institutions such as commercial banks, savings and loans, and credit unions. There is also material on resulting legislative reform proposals such as the Financial Institutions Act, first introduced in Congress in 1973 and later re-submitted with some modifications by the Ford administration in 1975.

In addition to material on specific reform proposals, the papers also include files on the FINE (Financial Institutions and the Nation's Economy) Study, a massive study conducted by the House Committee on Banking, Currency and Housing in late 1975. This study explored financial reform including topics such as housing finance and regulation of international banking. Comprehensive reform legislation, "The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act," imposing uniform reserve requirements and allowing banks and other financial institutions to greatly expand their services, was signed into law by President Carter on March 31, 1980.

The voluminous material relating to banking legislation includes correspondence with members of Congress, copies of Burns' testimony before various congressional committees, and published congressional hearings. Staff memoranda analyze legislative issues, report on the progress of bills, and document lobbying done to influence such legislation.

Incomes Policy, Government Loan Guarantees

The Burns Papers also include material on domestic aspects of President Nixon's "new economic policy" of 1971, especially the Economic Stabilization Program set up to combat inflation. There are files on several temporary agencies which were established to issue and enforce domestic economic controls (most notably wage and price controls) and material on legislation to temporarily extend the program. Dr. Burns, as Federal Reserve Chairman, served as head of one such agency -- the Committee on Interest and Dividends which issued guidelines on the payment of dividends and the level of interest rates.

Also present in the files is material relating to the Federal Reserve System's role as lender of last resort. During the 1970s the Federal Reserve was concerned with federal loan guarantees to Penn Central Railroad and Lockheed Aircraft and provided emergency assistance to commercial banks during the New York City financial crisis of 1975. The files include memoranda concerning the appropriate role of the Fed and the passage of legislation authorizing such assistance, as well as reports and minutes of the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board.

Administration and Reform of the Federal Reserve System

Finally, the papers also contain material relating to the administration of the Federal Reserve System, with information on personnel policies, budgets and Federal Reserve Bank building facilities.

There is also material on congressional attempts to exert greater control over the Federal Reserve System. During the 1970s several bills were introduced to reform the Federal Reserve System, including proposals to allow the President to appoint the Federal Reserve Chairman to a term approximately coterminous with his own. House Concurrent Resolution 133, a non-binding resolution passed in March 1975, directed Federal Reserve officials to appear before House and Senate banking committees semiannually to testify concerning monetary goals for the upcoming year and urged the Fed to pursue monetary growth to fight recession. The Federal Reserve Reform Act, enacted in 1977, placed new restrictions on the Federal Reserve System, including Senate confirmation of the President's choice of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board, and required the Fed to make quarterly reports to Congress concerning its monetary targets. Also, in 1978, after several years' debate, Congress passed legislation requiring an audit of certain Federal Reserve operations by the General Accounting Office.

Unprocessed Accretions to the Burns Papers

Since the original archival processing of the Burns Papers, the Library has received several accretions totalling approximately 53 feet of papers. The bulk of this material relates to his work at the American Enterprise Institute (1978-81 and 1985-87) and as ambassador to West Germany (1981-85). The accretions have not been processed and are not available for research.

Related Materials (September 1985):

Several subject categories in the White House Central Files include material relating to issues touched upon by the Burns Papers, especially categories FI (Finance), FO (Foreign Affairs), BE (Business-Economics), IT (International Organizations), and FG 131 (Federal Reserve System).

The files of several White House staff members also include related material, particularly those of staff members in the Office of Economic Affairs and members of the Domestic Council. The files of L. William Seidman, Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs and Executive Director, Economic Policy Board, especially include material on a wide range of both domestic and international economic issues. Material on banking reform can be found in the files of Domestic Council Associate Director Paul C. Leach.

The records of the Council of Economic Advisers, 1974‑77, include similar files on a wide range of international and domestic economic issues. Papers of Julius Shiskin consist largely of published material on economic matters, particularly the collection of statistical data.

Additional papers of Arthur Burns, 1930‑69, consisting of personal material and files relating to his service as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, are held by the Eisenhower Library.

List of Series

A 1‑34 White House Files

B 1‑118 Federal Reserve Board Subject File

C 1‑16 Federal Reserve Board Staff Files

D 1‑7 Federal Reserve Bank Files

E 1‑44 Speeches and Congressional Testimony

F 1‑15 Federal Open Market Committee Published Minutes, 1962‑76

G 1-55 Federal Open Market Committee Meeting Files

H 1-4 Federal Open Market Committee Memoranda

I (letter not used)

J Economic Policy Board File (Unprocessed)

K 1‑41 Name Correspondence Files

L 1‑11 General Alphabetical Correspondence, 1969‑73

M 1‑56 General Alphabetical Correspondence, 1974‑78

N 1 Presidential Correspondence

O 1‑17 Congressional Correspondence

P Personal File

Q 1‑12 Chronological File

R 1‑16 Newspaper Clippings

S 1‑14 Publications

T Accretions (Unprocessed)

Series Descriptions

A1-A34 White House Files, 1969-77. (14.0 linear feet)

White House staff memoranda, incoming and outgoing correspondence, newspaper clippings, reports and printed material. The files document the whole range of domestic issues facing the Nixon administration: welfare reform, the economy, housing, education, labor relations, urban renewal, and many more.

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

B1‑B118 Federal Reserve Board Subject File, 1969‑78. (47.2 linear feet)

Memoranda, correspondence, reports, telegrams, briefing papers, newspaper clippings, public statements, and printed material written by Burns or received by him, primarily from Federal Reserve Board staff members, U.S. government officials, and foreign banking officials. The files relate to both domestic and international monetary affairs. Subjects include: Federal Reserve Board organization and administration; bank regulation and reform; government loan guarantees; the Economic Stabilization Program; the international monetary crises of the early 1970s and subsequent international monetary reform; and international efforts to assist countries in financial difficulty.

Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically. Material relating to international meetings attended by Burns may be filed either under the name of the organization or under "Trips" (if Burns attended more than one event during the course of his travel.)

C1‑C16 Federal Reserve Board Staff Files, 1969‑78. (6.2 linear feet)

Memoranda to Burns from fellow Governors of the Federal Reserve Board and members of the Board staff concerning both domestic and international monetary policy. The folder title list enumerates some of the important policy matters that each staff member handled.

Arranged alphabetically by name of staff member.

D1‑D7 Federal Reserve Bank Files, 1969‑78. (2.8 linear feet)

Correspondence of Chairman Burns, and occasionally other Federal Reserve Governors, with officers of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks. Also, occasionally, Federal Reserve staff memoranda about the reserve banks, speeches given by bank officials, and bank reports and publications. Topics include requests and directives to the banks from the Board of Governors; personnel and administrative matters; discount rates; bank opinions on monetary issues; and proposed visits to the banks by Chairman Burns. The files on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also include material on open market operations as well as reports on bank representatives' attendance at meetings of the Bank for International Settlements.

Arranged alphabetically by bank.

E1‑E44 Speeches and Congressional Testimony, (1958) 1969‑78. (17.4 linear feet)

Files on speeches, remarks, and congressional testimony given by Dr. Burns, primarily as Federal Reserve Board Chairman. Most files include a press release of the final version of the public statement. Other material often present, but not always, includes: drafts; background material such as Federal Reserve staff memoranda, statistical tables, reports and printed material, bills before Congress, and copies of speeches and testimony given by others; and published congressional hearings. Burns made nearly 100 appearances before congressional committees while Chairman and also presented numerous speeches. Both domestic and international economic topics are addressed. The subject of a particular speech or congressional appearance is indicated in the folder title list.