American Decades
Burns, Arthur F. 1904-
CHAIRMAN FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD
Government Technocrat.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of the government technocrat, who wielded great influence over the U.S. economy. Arthur Burns is a prime example of the species. Nonpartisan in the strictest sense, Burns served eight U.S. presidents—Dwight Eisenhower through Ronald Reagan—in various posts and became one of the most important influences in the post-World War II American economy.
Education.
Burns was born in Stanislau, Austria, and immigrated as a child to Bayonne, New Jersey. An intellectually ambitious young man, Burns obtained a scholar-ship to Columbia University in 1921. He graduated in 1925 with both a B.A. and an M.A. in economics. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1934, the same year his dissertation, Production Trends in the United States Since 1870, was published. In 1944 Burns returned to Columbia University as a professor. In...
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1970's Business and the Economy
