Talk:monetarism

This page needs work

The only two senses of the word given today (2008-02-02), both explicitly stating that they relate to the field of economics, are stunningly incorrect. The article gives:

• (economics) The doctrine that economic systems are controlled by variations in the supply of money

  (economics) The political doctrine that a nation's economy can be controlled by regulating the money supply

On the first, monetarism does not hold that the "entire economic system" is controlled by money supply changes, but that changes in the aggregate (economy-wide) price level are affected by variations in the money supply. This should illustrate why the second sense given is also incorrect. It is true that a number of economic theorists emerged in the mid-twentieth century to develop a school of thought on the failings of standard neoclassical and Keynesian economics. But the monetarists developed a broad and complex critique, and certainly did not hold anything as simplistic as "economic systems" are "controlled by" variations in the supply of money. I am not a wordsmith, so am not the best person to try to fix this in a Wiktionary-like way, and I don't have the time right now anyway. But both of these definitions, as is, are wrong. Cheers, N2e 15:02, 2 February 2008 (UTC)