Burns Diary Exposes the Myth of Fed Independence - Doug French - Mises Daily

Burns Diary Exposes the Myth of Fed Independence - Doug French - Mises Daily: "a Fed chairman has to do what the president demands or 'the central bank would lose its independence.'"

"The Fed chair [Burns] writes more than once that he did not favor closing the gold window, but that ultimately it had to be closed because the government was incapable of action and leadership. But, of course, Burns and company were implementing Nixon's New Economic Policy, which involved plenty of heavy-handed government action: a wage-and-price freeze, a 10 percent surcharge on imports, an investment tax credit of 10 percent, and a 'temporary' closing of the gold window that became very permanent.

Burns wrote that he 'assured the President that I would support his new program fully,' notwithstanding his reservations about the gold suspension."