The incidental conditions for that office could hardly have been more difficult. The collapse of the Bretton Woods exchange rate system, the global oil crisis and recession, accompanied by strong inflationary pressures. But Arthur Burns set to work resolutely and persuasively; he made it clear that central banks could not be expected to bear the entire burden of fighting inflation on their own.
Without the support of other policy areas, after all, a monetary policy geared to price stability soon encounters its limits. Incidentally, this perception is just as true today as it was then. Finally, Arthur Burns made an invaluable contribution to US-German relations during the four years when he served as US ambassador to Germany.