Understanding Monetarism

Monetarism is a macroeconomic theory which states that governments can foster economic stability by targeting the growth rate of the money supply. Essentially, it is a set of views based on the belief that the total amount of money in an economy is the primary determinant of economic growth.

Monetarism is an economic school of thought which states that the supply of money in an economy is the primary driver of economic growth. As the availability of money in the system increases, aggregate demand for goods and services goes up. An increase in aggregate demand encourages job creation, which reduces the rate of unemployment and stimulates economic growth.

Monetary policy, an economic tool used in monetarism, is implemented to adjust interest rates that, in turn, control the money supply. When interest rates are increased, people have more of an incentive to save than to spend, thereby reducing or contracting the money supply. Contrarily, when interest rates are lowered following an expansionary monetary scheme, the cost of borrowing decreases, which means people can borrow more and spend more, thereby stimulating the economy.

Monetarism is closely associated with economist Milton Friedman, who argued, based on the quantity theory of money, that the government should keep the money supply fairly steady, expanding it slightly each year to allow for the natural growth of the economy. Due to the inflationary effects that can be brought about by the excessive expansion of the money supply, Friedman, who formulated the theory of monetarism, asserted that monetary policy should be done by targeting the growth rate of the money supply to maintain economic and price stability.

In his book, A Monetary History of the United States 1867–1960, Friedman proposed a fixed growth rate called the K-percent rule, suggesting that money supply should grow at a constant annual rate tied to the growth of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and be expressed as a fixed percentage per year. This way, the money supply will be expected to grow moderately, businesses will be able to anticipate the changes to the money supply every year and plan accordingly, the economy will grow at a steady rate, and inflation will be kept at low levels.

Central to monetarism is the "quantity theory of money," which monetarists adopted from earlier economic theories and integrated into the general Keynesian framework of macroeconomics. The quantity theory of money can be summarized in the equation of exchange, formulated by John Stuart Mill, which states that the money supply, multiplied by the rate at which money is spent per year, equals the nominal expenditures in the economy.

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