Hmmm, never thought about that much. I'd have called myself a pragmatist, but there's no such macroeconomic theory.

There are probably a dozen or more macroeconomic theories, but maybe those of John Maynard Keynes is on one end of the spectrum and those of Milton Freidman might be on the other end.

Keynesian economics advocates a mixed economy—predominantly private sector, but with a large role of government and public sector. Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and therefore, advocates active policy responses by the public sector, including monetary policy actions by the central bank and fiscal policy actions by the government to stabilize output over the business cycle.

Friedman became the main advocate opposing Keynesianism. Friedman argued the central government could not micromanage the economy because people would realize what the government was doing and change their behavior to neutralize such policies. Friedman's claim that monetary policy could have prevented the Great Depression was an attempt to refute the analysis of Keynes, who argued that monetary policy is ineffective during depression conditions and that fiscal policy — large-scale deficit spending by the government — is needed to decrease mass unemployment.

Simply put, I guess, Keynes says that there is a definite role for government in neutralizing bad decisions by the private sector and using fiscal policy to smooth the business cycle. Friedman argues that the free market is most efficient in achieving economic results and that entrepreneurial and profit-motivated decisions will always result in the most favorable economic outcomes.

Given the choice of one end of the spectrum or the other, I'd definitely side with John Maynard Keynes. The events of at least 4-5 major economic crises just in the last fifty years seems to support Keynes' theory that there is a definite role for government in the overall management of the economy. When government was permitted to play a strong role in the oversight of the economy, things ticked along pretty well. When political decisions were made to reduce government's authority over the economy, really bad things happened...as we all so sadly know now.