Robert Murphy on Market Monetarism

George SelginInthe latest installment in his series, " Understanding Money Mechanics, " Bob Murphy takes on Market Monetarism, andScott Sumner ' s case for having central banks practice NGDP level targeting in particular. A commentator there writes, " I hope George S. pipes up to defend MM! Seeing the other side can helps [sic] me to understand the theory better. "Far be it from me to refuse such a request!Murphy devotes much of his post to distinguishing Market Monetarism from both old-time Monetarism and Austrian monetary economics. Much of what I have to say also concerns those distinctions. I hope to persuade readers that Market Monetarism is more consistent with both old-fashioned Monetarism and Austrian economics than Murphy allows, and that, to the extent that it differs from versions of either, it does so in ways that improve upon them.Velocity: The Elephant in the RoomMurphy ' s essay begins with a generally accurate summary of the many points of resemblance between Sumner ' s Market Monetarism and Monetarism of the old-fashioned Milton Friedman sort, from which Sumner draws much of his inspiration. Among other things Murphy notes, correctly, that both Sumner and Friedman reject the naive view that the level of nominal interest rates is a reliable indicator of the stance of monetary policy, with low rates serving as evidence that money is " easy, " and high ones suggesting that it ' s " tight. "Murphy ' s summary falls short, however, when it comes to explaining the ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs