ABSTRACT
I WISH TO START with two general observations. First, what I have to say is largely based on my knowledge of developments within the United States and Britain. But I have sufficient confidence in the international character of science to believe that what can be observed in these countries is paralleled by similar developments elsewhere. My second observation is that a paper which deals with what is happening within a series of disciplines and which ranges so widely within economics itself, must inevitably mean, at any rate in my case, that it deals with many subjects about which the writer’s knowledge is extremely vague. What I have to say will often have the character of assertion rather than of a conclusion based on a careful study of the literature in the many fields covered by my subject. I believe that such a careful study would confirm what I assert. But it is equally true that it may refute my views. Papers presented at international conferences are not usually high-risk ventures, but this one is. However, I do not think what is called for at this stage is a paper guarded by qualifications and difficult to attack because it says so little except what is generally accepted.
