ARTHUR BURNS PAPERS, (1957) 1969-87 (1988-90)

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, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, 1970 78, Distinguished Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, 1978-81 and 1985-87, and U.S. Ambassador to West Germany, 1981-85. 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. A very small portion of this collection was compiled by Helen Burns, Arthur Burns wife, following the later's death.

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.

Post-Federal Reserve Period, 1978-1987
Immediately following Arthur Burns' service as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, he became a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  At AEI Burns focused on public speaking and writing, particularly on the American economy, especially inflation.  In his post-Federal Reserve period, Burns also served on the board of several organizations, and was a policy adviser for Ronald Reagan's 1981 Presidential campaign and aided the Reagan administration as a member of the President's Economic Advisory Council.  Records documenting these activities can be found in the General Subject File (W series); Trip Files (T Series); and Speeches, Congressional Testimony, Interviews, and Writings (E Series).

  In 1981, President Reagan appointed Arthur Burns U.S. Ambassador to West Germany.  Burns had already developed a friendship with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt well before assuming this post.  This closeness brought great candor in their meetings, which is documented in the "Memoranda and Notes to the File" section of the Ambassador's Subject File (U Series).  Burns devoted a substantial portion of his time as ambassador to promoting understanding between the U.S. and West Germany and encouraging international exchanges and education.  This was critical given the growing division between the two countries in respect to the U.S's approach to the Soviet Union, and the presence of U.S. troops and atomic weapons in West Germany.  The records document Burn's attempt to help West Germans understand U.S. policies in these areas.  Dr. Burns was also involved in matters related to conditions in Berlin and the NATO alliance, and often met with the Soviet ambassador in Berlin and with U.S. military commanders stationed in West Germany.  Materials pertaining to Arthur Burns' ambassadorial post are found in several series, including: Speeches, Congressional Testimony, Interviews, and Writings (E Series); Personal File (P Series); Newspaper Clippings (R Series); Trip Files (T Series); Ambassador's Subject File (U Series); Ambassador's Correspondence File (V Series).  Burns resigned from the post in 1985 and returned to AEI.

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.