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Arthur Burns may not be right. In fact, his record is open to many questions. The money supply has often jumped and fallen erratically; sometimes it seems that the Fed has lost control. But Burns has become more than the country's chief central banker. Part of the reason for that is a growing public appreciation of, and sympathy can business. Since the spring of 1975, Burns calculates that the private sector of the economy has added between 7 million and 8 million new jobs. Not even the most grandiose Government employment schemes could touch that achievement. It now is plain to most people that if the private sector falters, the unemployment problem will become monstrous, beyond Government's power to cope. Burns' tactics of restraint are designed to cool inflation, which he feels is the basic cause of unemployment.
Another thing: Burns runs, in his own words, "a house of integrity." Respect for integrity is not lost in this age. So what counts now is not so much Arthur Burns' record as his aura. It may be that his qualities of character and conservatism have been around so long that they have re-emerged as the future — whether he is reappointed or not.