Arthur Burns

1904- 1987

Economist

Economist Arthur Burns was born in Stanislau, Austria, on April 27, 1904. After earning a PhD from Columbia University in 1934, he taught economics at Rutgers University from 1927 to 1944. In 1944, he began teaching at Columbia University, a career which spanned two decades. Concurrently, he was a consultant to the US Treasury and chief economist for the Railway Emergency Board.
In 1953, he was appointed head of the Council of Economic Advisers. After three years, he returned to academia and served as president of the National Bureau of Economic Research for ten years. In 1969, President Nixon appointed Burns as an economic counselor, naming him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board one year later (1970-1978). Burns was US Ambassador to West Germany from 1981 to 1985. He died on June 26, 1987, in Baltimore, Maryland. Burns' major work was Measuring Business Cycles (1946), written with Wesley Chair Mitchell.