Alan Blinder, interviewed by Brian Snowdon in this issue, is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics at Princeton University. From 1993–94 he was a member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers before becoming Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve. He is also a former Deputy Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office. Professor Blinder is best known for his work on monetary and fiscal policy, central banking, inventories, and also for his staunch defence of Keynesian economics. He has published numerous articles and his books include Economics: Principles and Policy, with William Baumol (Harcourt Brace, 1979; 8th Edition, 2000); Economic Policy and the Great Stagflation (Academic Press, 1979); Hard Heads, Soft Hearts: Tough-Minded Economics for a Just Society (Addison Wesley, 1987); Central Banking in Theory and Practice (MIT Press, 1998); Asking About Prices: A New Approach to Understanding Price Stickiness, with E. Canetti, D. Lebow and J. Rudd (Russell Sage Foundation, 1998).