Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Using money quantity as a target has not worked well, and the author doubts it now.
In plain terms
Trying to control money supply targets failed, and I am less sure now.
What can you take from it?
Monetary targets are not always effective.

Where it applies

  • monetary policy
  • economic strategy
  • central banking

Putting it to work

  • review targets
  • assess results
  • adapt strategy

Questions to consider

  • What worked?
  • Why change?

Another view

It might work better under different conditions.

More from Milton Friedman

  1. The unions might be good for the people who are in the unions but it doesn't do a thing for the people who are unemployed because the union keeps down the numb…

    Permalink to quote #18
  2. I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible. The reason I am is because I believe the big…

    Permalink to quote #20
  3. There's a smokestack on the back of every government program.

    Permalink to quote #17

Related quotes

  1. Thus those reformers, who look for a remedy by creating artificial carrying-costs for money through the device of requiring legal-tender currency to be periodi…

    John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes quote #2
  2. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of …

    William Lyon Mackenzie KingWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King quote #2
  3. Criticizing the limitations of Roosevelt's New Deal: 'Not a single thin dime of concentrated, bloated, pompous wealth, massed in the hands of a few people, has…

    Huey P. LongHuey P. Long quote #19