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Working Paper
Reaffirming the Influence of Milton Friedman on U.K. Economic Policy
This paper finds a significant influence of Milton Friedman on U.K. economic policy from the 1970s onward, and especially during the period of the Thatcher Government. The finding is based on a consideration of statements by policymakers and key economic advisers, as well as an analysis of Friedman?s commentary in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s on U.K. economic developments. Explicit, public acknowledgments of Friedman's influence were given by Margaret Thatcher, Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe, Bank of England officials, and others in policy circles. Examples of Friedman's influence ...
Working Paper
What Remains of Milton Friedman's Monetarism?
From the early 1960s until the early 1970s with the emergence of rational expectations, under the rubric of monetarism, Milton Friedman defined macroeconomic debate. Although the Keynesian consensus that he challenged has disappeared, the current academic literature makes little reference to monetarist ideas. What happened to them? The argument here is that those ideas remain relevant but require translation into terms expressible in modern macroeconomic models and in the monetary policies of central banks, neither of which contain any obvious references to money. Moreover, the Friedman and ...
Working Paper
Seven Fallacies Concerning Milton Friedman's \"The Role of Monetary Policy\"
This paper analyzes Milton Friedman's (1968) article "The Role of Monetary Policy," via a discussion of seven fallacies concerning the article. These fallacies are: (1) "The Role of Monetary Policy" was Friedman?s first public statement of the natural rate hypothesis. (2) The Friedman-Phelps Phillips curve was already presented in Samuelson and Solow's (1960) analysis. (3) Friedman's specification of the Phillips curve was based on perfect competition and no nominal rigidities. (4) Friedman?s (1968) account of monetary policy in the Great Depression contradicted the Monetary History's ...
Journal Article
Economic History: Milton Friedman, Dissenter
At an event in 2002 in honor of Milton Friedman's 90th birthday, then-Fed chair Ben Bernanke offered him an olive branch of sorts on behalf of the Fed. "Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it," Bernanke conceded. "We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again."Bernanke's comment was an allusion to the 1963 book A Monetary History of the United States 1867-1960 by Friedman and economist Anna Schwartz, in which they argued that monetary policy led by the Fed had an enormous influence on the recessionary periods of the U.S. economy, including the Great Depression. ...