Abstract

On the Influence of Modern Monetary Theory on American Monetary Policy

The first part deals with the question of how the American Federal Reserve System receives, develops and elaborates new theories on monetary policy. The inclination of the Federal Reserve to recognize new theories and base its action on them is limited by the fact that it is not entirely independent of the president and Congress and orients itself to some degree to its own power and prestige objectives. The pursuance of these latter interests finds expression in avoidance of conflicts with strong social groups and institutions in efforts to preserve its scope for monetary action, and in endeavours to avoid clear formulations of goals and confession of its own mistakes. The second part first outlines the most important theories relevant to monetary policy - monetarism, Keynesianism, the theory of rational expectations, and the conception of money market stabilization long advocated by the Federal Reserve. A description of the most recent change in the monetary policy concept of the Federal Reserve follows. The conclusion drawn is that the Federal Reserve has to some extent come closer to monetarism - as compared with former years - but still adopts a “middle-of-the-road” position that is acceptable for both “mild” Keynesianism and “mild” monetarism