Monetarism

Monetarists are iconoclasts because they attack the belief in the ability of either the Fed or the federal government to stabilize the economy. They argue that fiscal policy is an essentially useless tool, having little or no impact on output or employment because of a total crowding-out effect. Suppose the money supply remains fixed and the federal government borrows to finance its deficit. The intended goal is to increase aggregate demand and restore full employment. According to the monetarists, financing the deficit will drive up the interest rate and crowd out a substantial, not a small, amount of investment spending. The reason is that the monetarists view the investment demand curve as sensitive to changes in the interest rate, and therefore, greater amounts of investment spending will be crowded out. As a result, the net effect is no increase in aggregate demand and no reduction in unemployment.

Conclusion: Monetarists view the shape of the investment demand curve as less steep or more flat, so the crowding-out effect is significant.

Although the monetarists do not trust the Federal Reserve to use discretionary monetary policy, they are quick to point out that only money is important. Changes in the money supply, the basic lever of monetary policy, have a powerful impact. Instead of ineffectual government deficit spending to cure unemployment, an increase in the money supply would definitely stimulate the economy based on the quantity theory of money. In short, changes in the money supply directly result in changes in real GDP.

Notes:

1.top banana n slang – главный, наиболее важный фактор;

2.crowding-out effect – эффект вытеснения;

3. iconoclast n – борец с предрассудками.

Ex. 1. Choose the correct answer.

1. The quantity theory of money of the Classical economists says that a change in the money supply will produce a:

a) proportional change in the price level.

b) wide variation in the velocity of money.

c) less than proportional change in the price level.

d) greater than proportional change in the price level.

2. According to Keynesians, an increase in the money supply will:

a) decrease the interest rate, and increase investment, aggregate demand, prices, real GDP, and employment.

b) decrease the interest rate, and decrease investment, aggregate demand, prices, real GDP, and employment.

c) increase the interest rate, and decrease investment, aggregate demand, prices, real GDP, and employment.

d) only increases prices.

3. Which of the following is true?

a) Keynesians advocate increasing the money supply during economic recessions but decreaseing the money supply during economic expansions.

b) Monetarists advocate increasing the money supply by a constant rate year after year.

c) Keynesians argue that the crowding-out effect is rather insignificant.

d) Monetarists argue that the crowding-out effect is rather large.

e) All of the above.

4. How is modern monetarism different from Keynesianism?

a) Monetarists believe that inflation is caused by excessive growth in the money supply, based on the equation of exchange, while Keynesians believe that inflation is caused by excessive growth in aggregate demand.

b) Monetarists believe that the velocity of money is predictable, while Keynesians believe it is unstable.

c) Monetarists believe that wages and prices are flexible, while Keynesians do not.

d) Monetarists believe that crowding-out negates any positive impact of fiscal policy, while Keynesians see a clear impact of fiscal policy on aggregate demand.

e) All of the above.