Saturday, May 17, 2014

Nuanced Monetarism


In The General Theory, Maynard Keynes said

we can draw the line between "money" and "debts" at whatever point is most convenient for handling a particular problem.

In Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman wanted

to carefully manage the quantity of money, but he didn't care what money was managed, what monetary aggregate. It didn't concern him at all.

According to Keynes, where you put the dividing line between money and debt depends on the problem you're trying to solve. According to Friedman, it doesn't matter where you put the dividing line.

1 comment:

The Arthurian said...

Obviously, Keynes is the better monetarist.