Examples of the latter cited by Brimmer include Nixon, believing that the Federal Reserve had cost him the election in 1960, replacing Chairman William McChesney Martin with Arthur Burns in February 1970 when Martin’s term expired; Carter, appointing William Miller to replace Chairman Burns in 1978; and Reagan, appointing Alan Greenspan as Chairman in 1987.
For the most part, their best efforts to appoint sympathetic choices as Chairmen have, in Brimmer’s judgement, been frustrated by the systematic tendency of Chairmen and other Board members to insist on exercising their congressional mandate.