Alan Greenspan will retire as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in the next several months after serving more than 18 years, arguably the most successful period of monetary policy in the history of the Federal Reserve. Has the Fed followed an identifiable monetary rule during this period? Should the Fed follow a specific rule in the future, and if so, what should it be? How important is it for the administration, Congress, the press, academic macroeconomists, and the financial community to understand this rule?

Those are the issues that will be addressed by William Poole, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and a former member of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. Commenting on Poole’s presentation will be William Niskanen, chairman of the Cato Institute and Poole’s former colleague on the CEA.