Wednesday 23 August 2006

Milton Friedman likes Don Brash

Uber-economist Milton Friedman admires Don Brash. True. While not resiling from his "passive monetary policy: Thou shalt abolish the Federal Reserve," Friedman attributes the "better performance in monetary policy over the past twenty years or so ... primarily [to] the recognition by central banks worldwide that they have responsibility for inflation."

And how did that happen, says Friedman?
My aphorism, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon,” was converted from an object of derision to a near truism. This experience was of course strongly reinforced by the leadership shown by Alan Greenspan in the United States, but also I believe by the leadership shown by Donald Brash in New Zealand.
Read it all here: Letter from Milton. [And listen here to Don defending central banking to a libertarian free-banking audience. And see here my own comments on how the Reserve Bank's guidelines have become a straitjacket for the economy.]

LINK: Letter from Milton - Greg Mankiw's Blog [Hat tip Rodney Hide]
Do we need a central bank? - DonBrash.Com [transcript of speech to SOLO conference]
Do we need a central bank? - Audio of speech, including Q & A
Denying prosperity by misunderstanding inflation - Not PC (Peter Cresswell)

RELATED:
Economics, Politics-National, History-Modern

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Milton might like Don because he's his long lost evil twin... The resemblance is scary! Or do all economists bald and bespeckled?

Peter Cresswell said...

I'm pretty sure George Riesman has all his own hair and his own eyes. But he's also exceptional for other reasons. :-)

leelion said...

the Zimbabwean government are doing a superb job of late to promote the benefits of central banking

I see new vehicle sales are down in the U.S (classic sign of slowdown) and looks like their housing market is fizzling, interesting to see what happens next