Market Monetarism

Archive for Market Monetarism

U.S. Monetary History Bask

Hey kids, sorry to ask this, but Scott Sumner is getting uppity and I really need the monthly M2 figures for the U.S. in the period of 1919 – 1922. I don’t need the figures for every single month in that span, but it would be great to know the peaks and troughs. Does anybody […]

Yes Scott Sumner Is “the NGDP Guy”

I explain why he has been pigeonholed. For example, he has said the Fed is more powerful than God because it controls NGDP. More substantively, I produce the following chart: So yes, Scott is right that some economists foolishly thought monetary policy was tight in the Weimar Republic because nominal interest rates were high. But […]

The Vacuity of Scott Sumner’s Approach to Monetary Policy

My latest at Mises CA, sparked by Scott responding to Tyler Cowen on “causality.” The punchline: …I want to point out an odd feature of Sumner’s worldview, which partly explains why it is (arguably) vacuous as an “explanation” of recessions. For the sake of argument, suppose Janet Yellen announces next Monday: “I have been reading the […]

Canadian Budget Cuts Didn’t Rely on “Offsetting Monetary Expansion”

I manage to take on both Keynesians and Market Monetarists in this blog post, while sparing David R. Henderson. It’s like in the arcade when you shoot the bad guys without hitting the civilians. (David R. Henderson might even call himself a Market Monetarist; I’m not sure. Don’t ruin my joke.) The conclusion: The experience […]

A Post Having Absolutely Nothing to Do With Level Targeting of NGDP Growth

I have been somewhat astonished by how much Scott Sumner has transformed the economics blogosphere (and even serious academics and policymakers) in favor of his views, which were almost universally considered absurd back in early 2009. It’s not just progressive Keynesians who have come around to his way of thinking, but even many free market […]

The Austrian School (and Rothbardians in Particular): The Only Consistent Anti-Interventionists

In the blogosphere’s discussion to the Krugman-Barro flap–which soon enough engulfed Russ Roberts and me–Scott Sumner has (partially) defended Krugman. Sumner too is frustrated with modern conservatives who reject Obama’s fiscal “stimulus” packages, yet do so with rhetoric that would also throw out the need for Fed monetary stimulus. I agree entirely with Scott when […]

The Krugman/Sumner Showdown–In Layman’s Terms

The blogosphere has been abuzz (though nothing compared to the Great Debt Debate of 2012) with activity centered on whether the year 2013 provided a good test of the economic views of Keynesians like Paul Krugman versus Market Monetarists such as Scott Sumner. These things often get bogged down in technical minutiae. In the present […]

Is Market Monetarism Pining for the Fjords?

Scott Sumner has a new post at EconLog saying that Keynesianism isn’t just resting (in reference to the famous Monty Python “Dead Parrot” sketch). Scott does a great job busting Mike Konczal, who earlier in 2013 had said the year would be a great test for market monetarism vs. Keynesianism. Since the Keynesian warnings about […]