J. M. Keynes Comments on the Current Crisis

Non-Standard Monetary Policy: Robert Lucas on Non-Standard Monetary Policy 2008:

A dead end? Not at all. The Fed can satisfy the demand for quality by using reserves -- or "printing money" -- to buy securities other than Treasury bills. This is the way the $600 billion got out into the private sector...

Maynard Keynes on Non Standard Monetary Policy 1937:

If the monetary authority were prepared to deal both ways on specified terms in debts of all maturities, and even more so if it were prepared to deal in debts of varying degrees of risk, the relationship between the complex of rates of interest and the quantity of money would be direct. The complex of rates of interest would simply be an expression of the terms on which the banking system is prepared to acquire or part with debts; and the quantity of money would be the amount which can find a home in the possession of individuals who — after taking account of all relevant circumstances — prefer the control of liquid cash to parting with it in exchange for a debt on the terms indicated by the market rate of interest. Perhaps a complex offer by the central bank to buy and sell at stated prices gilt-edged bonds of all maturities, in place of the single bank rate for short-term bills, is the most important practical improvement which can be made in the technique of monetary management....

Ben Bernanke (2009) is following their advice. I'd say that, when Robert Lucas and Maynard Keynes agree, they probably have a point.

I am Robert Waldmann and Brad DeLong approved this message.