Mises Wire

Keynes to FDR

Keynes to FDR

Under Literature, new issues of American Affairs are being added, in particular this one from 1946, which runs a letter from Keynes to FDR. I find it very bizarre really. I had never seen this before:

The United States is ready to roll toward prosperity, if a good hard shove can be given in the next six months. Could not the energy and enthusiasm which launched the NBA in its early days be put behind a campaign for accelerating capital expenditures, as wisely chosen as the pressure of circumstances permits? You can at least feel sure that the country will be better enriched by such projects than by the involuntary idleness of millions. I put in the second place the maintenance of cheap and abundant credit, in particular the reduction of the long-term rate of interest. The turn of the tide in Great Britain is largely attributable to the reduction in the long-term rate of interest which ensued on the success of the conversion of the war loan. This was deliberately engineered by the open-market policy of the Bank of England. I see no reason why you should not reduce the rate of interest on your long-term government bonds to 2%% or less, with favorable repercussions on the whole by the market, if only the Federal Reserve System would replace its present holdings of shortdated Treasury issues in exchange. Such a policy might become effective in a few months, and I attach great importance to it.
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