And in case you missed the two quotes from White that I posted on Twitter last night as I was
listening to his McAlvany
podcast (these were in regards to economic modeling and the desire to try
and control the economy through monetary policy):
"I'm becoming more and more convinced that all of the
models that we use are basically useless."
"..maybe..our ambitions about control are too ambitious
for the knowledge that we have."
He also mentioned Danny Kahneman’s work when discussing the psychology
of how different governments are acting today. Germany, because of its
experience of the 1920s hyperinflation, thinks that a hyperinflation is the
worst of all outcomes, so they act to keep balanced deficits, as unbalanced
ones were some of the triggers leading to the earlier problems. The U.S.
experience of the debt deflation during the Great Depression is the event that is
largely driving its actions today, as it also seeks to avoid a repeat of its
most vivid financial crisis. Etc.
AbstractIn recent decades, the declarations of “independent” central banks and the conduct of monetary policy have been assigned an ever increasing role in the pursuit of economic and financial stability. This is curious since there is, in practice, no body of scientific knowledge (evidence based beliefs) solid enough to have ensured agreement among central banks on the best way to conduct monetary policy. Moreover, beliefs pertaining to every aspect of monetary policy have also changed markedly and repeatedly. This paper documents how the objectives of monetary policy, the optimal exchange rate framework, beliefs about the transmission mechanism, the mechanism of political oversight, and many other aspects of domestic monetary frameworks have all been subject to great flux over the last fifty years. The paper also suggests ways in which the current economic and financial crisis seems likely to affect the conduct of monetary policy in the future. One possibility is that it might lead to yet another fundamental reexamination of our beliefs about how best to conduct monetary policy in an increasingly globalized world. The role played by money and credit, the interactions between price stability and financial stability, the possible medium term risks generated by “ultra easy” monetary policies, and the facilitating role played by the international monetary (non) system all need urgent attention. The paper concludes that, absent the degree of knowledge required about its effects, monetary policy is currently being relied on too heavily in the pursuit of “strong, balanced and sustainable growth.”