Dear Professor DeLong,

Please accept my excuses for intruding into your e:box. The question I need to pose to You arose out of a discussion with a colleague. The core of the matter concerns Mr Greenspan's ideology. Would You describe Mr. Greenspan's micro-management of the rate mechanism as being, somehow, inspired or influenced by Lord Keynes?, or maybe openly Keynesian?.

If you have another opinion please share it with us.

Thank You very much for your web-page, and your attention, with sincere regards,

Ricardo Quiel (Panama)

-- Ricardo Quiel (seae@mici.gob.pa), May 25, 2000

Answers

Alan Greenspan would certainly not say that he is a Keynesian. He might say that he is a Wicksellian--a believer in equilibrium real interest rates, and in the roleof the central bank in stabilizing the economy by interest rate management.

Of course, in practice there seems to me to be very little difference between a follower of Lord Keynes and a follower of his Swedish contemporary, Knut Wicksell...

-- Bradford DeLong (delong@econ.berkeley.edu), June 19, 2000.