Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Krugthulu on Paleo-Monetarism

This is one of those actually obvious points you really do have to repeat at least as endlessly as the Know-Nothings repeat their nonsense, else the nonsense prevails at the level of policy and to the ruin of all (which is yet another of those essentially rhetorical insights for the economist's toolkit I've been talking about lately, by the way):
[W]ith credit cards, electronic money, repo, and more all serving the purpose of medium of exchange -- it’s not clear that any single number deserves to be called “the” money supply. Intellectually, this isn’t a problem; nor is there necessarily a problem maintaining monetary policy even if there isn’t any single thing you’re willing to call money…. But if you’re determined to view economic affairs through a sort of paleo-monetarist lens, focused on the evils of “printing money”, you’re going to have a hard time in the modern world

No comments: