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
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