Introduction:

I am grateful for the invitation to speak here on the occasion of the 10th workshop of the Research Network ‘Alternative Macroeconomic Policies’.

I was invited as someone who has not, or not yet, cooperated closely within this network, but who is expected to be favourable to its activities. Since I am strongly impressed by the output of the research network, it is a pleasure for me to congratulate the whole network on its persistent success. The network has worked continuously and each year it has published an interesting, instructive and valuable volume assembling the contributions of the conference held the year before.

Nine volumes have already appeared; they have covered the most important aspects of macroeconomic theory and policies. The first one was given a rather optimistic title, namely ‘Renaissance der Makroökonomik’ (Renaissance of Macroeconomics) without question mark. Already the second volume and also the last one were concerned with the problems of macroeconomic policy in Europe, on the national and/or the European level. Monetary and fiscal policies were addressed in two separate volumes.

Another one was concerned with the question whether, and how, a new international monetary order should be established. ‘The USA as a model of the New Economy?’, the ‘New Keynesian Economics’ and the macroeconomic analysis of ‘Wages, employment, distribution and growth’ were the topics of the remaining three volumes.

Since it would be impossible to present the content or to reproduce the main lines of argument, I decided not to make any further remarks about past work, but to look ahead into the future. The question which I choose to answer is given by the title of my speech. I started my reflections studying the program of this conference, and found an interesting difference between the network’s title ‘Alternative Macroeconomic Policies’ and the title of this plenary session where the word ‘alternative’ has disappeared. I asked myself: Is this pure accident or does it suggest that one cannot speak of alternative macroeconomic policies?