A Maverick for Treasury

G. William Miller likes to tell the story of a mythical poll in which the American people were asked to define what the Federal Reserve actually was. According to Miller, 23% of them said it was an Indian reservation, 26% thought it a wildlife preserve and 51% identified it as a brand of whisky.

In his 16 months as chairman of the Fed, Bill Miller, 54, has been something of a maverick. He speaks freely to the press, signs most of his business letters Bill, and takes off his jacket on occasion at congressional hearings. A businessman and lawyer rather than an economist by training, he has been remarkably accurate in his economic forecasting. Known from the beginning as a determined inflation fighter, he has taken the position that the Fed should be dedicated to a long-term plan for reducing the inflation rate over the next five to seven years and should not react nervously to every fluctuation in the economic outlook. "Steady as you go" be came his watchword.

Miller is a team player, and that may explain why he accepted the President's offer to become Treasury Secretary after two other candidates had turned down the job. (Another theory is that he has political ambitions.) It may also explain why he helped the Administration get the natural gas compromise bill through Congress last year -raising questions as to whether the chairman of the Fed should be getting into any subject as controversial as gas decontrol. But earlier this year, when the Administration tried to pressure him into raising interest rates, Miller flatly refused. Such high rates, he insisted, would be "unbecoming, unwise and unnecessary," and would run the risk of deepening the coming recession.

Born in Oklahoma, Miller grew up in the oil boomtown of Borger, Texas, and went on to attend the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. In China shortly after World War II, he met his wife Ariadna, a White Russian living in Shanghai. After law school at the University of California and four years in a Wall Street law firm, Miller took a job at Textron Inc., the big Providence-based conglomerate, eventually becoming its chairman. During his 17 years running Textron, the company's annual sales grew from $383 million a year to $2.8 billion, and profits jumped from $14 million to $137 million. His spare-time interests range from golf to opera.

After his new appointment was announced last week, Miller cheerfully held up a crumpled dollar bill at a news conference in San Francisco. Grinning, he declared: "My purpose is to make this dollar grow." His first priority at the Treasury Department, he said, will be "to continue the war against inflation," which he still regards as "the greatest threat to our nation."

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