Policy Makers on Policy: The Mais Lectures

Monetary policy is still one of the most contested areas of modern economics, and since the original publication of Policy Makers on Policy much has changed. This new edition collects contributions from leading policy makers and practitioners to reflect on the aims and objectives of monetary policy and on what it can achieve, combining the old chapters from Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Kenneth Clarke, Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson, and others, with new perspectives from Mervyn King, Jean-Claude Trichet, Ernst Welteke, Otmar Issing, and Alastair Darling.

A new far-reaching introduction from the editors Forrest Capie and Geoffrey Wood puts these important contributions to the discussion of economic policy in the new context. They look at what lessons can be learnt from the earlier discussions, what anticipations of present difficulties can be found in them and what, in other words, the comparatively recent past teaches us about how to deal with the turbulent present.

The second edition of Policy Makers on Policy brings together otherwise inaccessible commentaries and reflections on policy by those involved in making it, along with a commentary on and context for their remarks. Thus the book will be of great interest and use to students of economics and politics, and indeed anyone with an interest in current economic developments and their roots in the past.

Forrest H. Capie is Professor of Economic History at Cass Business School, City University, and historian to the Bank of England, UK.

Geoffrey E. Wood is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Cass Business School, City University, UK.