ABSTRACT
Economist Federico Caff, born 1914, mysteriously disappeared between 14 and 15 April 1987. This dramatic decision to escape from the world leaving no trace inspired a fine book by E. Rea, Lultima lezione, the last lecture, published in 1992, as well as a movie by F. Rosi with the same title. Cambridge in the 1930s represented a continuous source of inspiration, not only due to the presence of Keynes, but also on account of Pigous reformulation of the economics of welfare along lines quite different from Paretos. Secondarily, Cambridge signified the admirable Keynesian construction: a construction that was independent of welfare economics, but aimed to make legitimate an appropriate public intervention. As far as Caff is concerned, one finds in his work a conception of economic policy that favourably emphasises the discretional action of the policy-maker, in comparison to the automatic mechanisms preached by modern monetarism.
