Letter: Keynes: how to invest

Sir: Alastair Ross-Goobey ('Showing some faith in long-range forecasts', 8 June) quotes from Harrod's Life of Keynes to illustrate PosTel's long-term approach to investment management.

It is worth noting that Keynes's personal investment philosophy was not immutable, as Professor Skidelsky has explained in his two volumes of biography. After The General Theory, Keynes's approach 'can be summed up as fidelity to a few carefully chosen stocks' (p525, Volume 2). This can be contrasted with his declaration after appointment in 1919 to the Board of National Mutual Life Assurance Company: 'A Life Office ought to have only one investment and it should be changed every day' (p25, Volume 2).

This illustrates the truth of the adage: ask three economists for their views on a particular topic and you get four different responses - two of them Keynes's.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN WOODS

Head of Investment

Reeves Brown Associates

London, SE1