Friday, January 23, 2015

Glanser on Nick Rowe, Friedman and Meade

Nick Rowe Goes Bonkers over Milton Friedman by David Glasner

In his 1977 Nobel Lecture, as Marcus Nunes informed us a few days ago, Meade explicitly advocated targeting nominal GDP writing as follows: 
I have told this particular story simply to make the point that the choice between fiscal action and monetary action must often depend upon basic policy issues which should certainly be the responsibility of the government rather than of any independent monetary authority. Perhaps the best compromise is an independent monetary authority charged so to manage the money supply and the market rate of interest as to maintain the growth of total money income on its 5-per-cent-per-annum target path, after taking into account whatever fiscal policies the government may adopt. 
So let me ask Nick the following: Was Meade right or left? And was he on the winning side or the losing side?
James E. Meade

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