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Idiots Blogging...
Oct. 13th, 2003 01:38 pmI just read on a Blod where somebody described Milton Friedman as the greatest economist of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
Well, he was certainly an economist of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
But this is the man who was big on Money Supply Side economic theory. Monetarism.
Now, key to this was controlling money in circulation in order to control inflation, growth etc...
It sounded great in theory, he made a big impression on Reagan and Mrs T. However, there was a slight problem.
It didn't work. The older Brits might remember the M0,M3 money circulation figures being quoted on the news. Of course, these also excluded minor little things like psuedo-money such as credit cards.
While these were negliable in the 70's and very early 80's in the UK (not the US though), after the 1984 credit act which basically created a credit boom - money on credit cards made a huge impact and wasn't all that controllable.
And now, while Milton talks about all sorts of things, the big parties who used to love him are generally all back to spending their way out of problems. Go figure...
Well, he was certainly an economist of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
But this is the man who was big on Money Supply Side economic theory. Monetarism.
Now, key to this was controlling money in circulation in order to control inflation, growth etc...
It sounded great in theory, he made a big impression on Reagan and Mrs T. However, there was a slight problem.
It didn't work. The older Brits might remember the M0,M3 money circulation figures being quoted on the news. Of course, these also excluded minor little things like psuedo-money such as credit cards.
While these were negliable in the 70's and very early 80's in the UK (not the US though), after the 1984 credit act which basically created a credit boom - money on credit cards made a huge impact and wasn't all that controllable.
And now, while Milton talks about all sorts of things, the big parties who used to love him are generally all back to spending their way out of problems. Go figure...
