according to this new school-- the so-called "rational expectationists"-- only unexpected governmenticies are likely to affect the economy, and their effect is likely to be harmful. so far have we come from the keynesian revolution! in 1983, america came bouncing out of the recession, but a funny thing happened on the way to prosperity. out of billions of dollars of consumer spending, too much was pouring overseas. foreigners held a high percentage of our national debt. by 1985, economists here and abroad were asking, "is our domestic economy the hostage of international forces?" those international forces had been building throughout the 1970s. the percentage of our economy devoted to foreign trade doubled, passing 10% by 1981. what problems would this create for conduct of economic policy? we asked economist robert gordon. the problems that creates would be no problem if it weren't for the flexible, variable exchange rate of the dollar, which means conducting policy in washington now has side effects that didn't exist before, namely, if we decide to fight inflation with tight money