somebody who had known him for a long time, ken galbraith, came in to see me.said, "you should understand "that kennedy has the capacity to read and understand. don't be afraid to write him." lyndon johnson wanted short memos. he said, "write lengthy memos. "he'll be interested. just put in some humor." kennedy took office as the country was beginning its recovery from the recession of 1960, but unemployment remained distressingly high. kennedy's advisers began to realize the recovery contained seeds of its own demise. the government soon took in more than it spent. that surplus would stop economic growth well short of full employment. that could be corrected in two ways-- by tax cuts or by increased expenditure. i felt our social programs, particularly those on behalf of the poor, were in need of more support, that we had a commitment to people in need and that was how the money should be used. [schoumacher] kennedy's new economic adviser had different ideas. [heller] there wn't as much disagreement as it's often made out to be. i wanted a tax cut but as a pac

galbraith, very much a keynesian economist. and george stigler who had a very wry sense of humor said all economists are tall. there are two exceptions. john ken eths galbraith and milton friedman. i mean, that is just a classic line. i showed this to ben bernanke once, and he just does not have a sense of humor. the man looked at it and said, that's not logical. that was his answer. that's not logical. so anyway, a lot of -- i had a lot of fun times with milton friedman over the years, but our debates got heated from time to time. friedman was a tough debater. in fact, it has been said that milton friedman never lost a debate in his entire career. now rose, his wife, would dispute that. but nevertheless, i saw friedman in action. i certainly never won a debate with milton friedman. i was in the london underground with the keynesian economist, "the new york times" columnist, and krugman has quite a high opinion of himself. and at one point i said, so paul, no mr. krugman. it's just paul, have you ever lost a debate? and he paused for a minute and he said, you know, i really don't think so. and i said, that's too bad milton friedman isn't alive