(3 of 3)
That left Miller and MacLaury, 46. Miller clearly had the advantage. His sponsor was Blumenthal, himself a businessman (former Bendix Corp. chief) and an old acquaintance. Last Tuesday, the President talked with Miller and MacLaury in morning interviews, and in the end Carter's wish to appeal to the business community ruled out MacLaury.
Next came the touchy matter of telling Burns. Tuesday evening Carter himself reached Burns in West Palm Beach and asked him to come to Washington, without saying why. Mondale was dispatched in an Air Force DC-9 to pick up Burns. The flight to Washington was quite stilted with Mondale and Burns both knowing what they should be talking about but never mentioning it.
At the White House, Carter talked amiably with Burns. Carter told the chairman of his ideas about what the Fed should be doing. Not until the end of the hour-long exchange did the President get to the point: he would not reappoint Burns, but instead would choose Bill Miller, whom Burns knows because Miller for seven years has been a director of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank.
Burns, accompanied by Miller, returned to the Federal Reserve Building on Constitution Avenue. There, Burns hastily assembled a meeting of top staffers to break the news. Miller was then ushered in to be introduced. At 5 p.m., Carter went before newsmen to announce the switch, with both Miller and Burns present. Burns asserted: "Mr. President, you have chosen wisely and well," then returned to Florida without once passing through his office.
Businessmen promptly praised Miller's appointment as "imaginative" and "inspired." Peter Peterson, head of the newly merged investment banking house of Lehman Bros. Kuhn Loeb Inc. and a longtime friend of both Burns and Miller, said of Miller: "He's a highly sophisticated, aware, dedicated and mature business manager and human being." AFL-CIO Boss George Meany, an archenemy of Burns, praised Carter for dropping the old chairman and "moving away from the discredited policies that created the last recession. Wisconsin Democrat William Proxmire, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said that he might vote against Miller's confirmation because of his lack of banking experience. But he conceded that the Senate is likely to confirm Miller in view of the "glowing recommendations from all sides that this guy seems to have."
What now for Arthur Burns? The President asked Burns to stay on as one of the Federal Reserve's seven governors; Burns' 14-year term in that post does not expire until 1984. Burns replied in stratospheric fashion: "The good doctor is in the habit of thinking now and then, and he'll have to think this over carefully." His decision may well be no. He could make good money on the lecture circuit, in the manner of Henry Kissinger or Gerald Ford. He does not seem to regard Miller as a dangerous radical whose influence would have to be countered. And after having had the chairman's weight, Arthur Burns is not likely to settle for being just another governor Says Andrew Brimmer, a Reserve Board governor for more than half of Burns' eight years as chairman: "I cannot imagine his moving around to the other side of the table and just sitting there as the ranking member of the Board." Burns does not consider power to be a spectator sport.