For all you paople labouring under the misapprehension that Thatcher ISNT behind todays mess then read on

John Carson

fat_boy wrote:

No, seriouslyt, the whole idea of using interest rates to controll inflation was started by her and kept up by every government since.

No it wasn't. Seems you are an all purpose moron and not just a climate change moron.

John Carson

Lost User

Wow, you really are a sad little person.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

Lost User

John Carson wrote:

No it wasn't

OK, to take you just a little bit seriously, the IEA came up with the idea and she implemented it. So tell me, who in your opinion did, and if you say Regan then dont forget the close relationship she had with him.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

Chris Meech

fat_boy wrote:

the whole idea of using interest rates to controll inflation was started by her

What was actually done, was to use interest rates to control money supply. The net effect of this was to then influence the rate of inflation. And Reagan and Thatcher were certainly not the inventors of the idea. Go read some more about John Maynard Keynes[^] and Keynesian economics. Another was Milton Friedman[^].

Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]

Lost User

I didnt say she created the idea, I heard the IEA did, but she implemented it.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

John Carson

fat_boy wrote:

OK, to take you just a little bit seriously, the IEA came up with the idea and she implemented it. So tell me, who in your opinion did, and if you say Regan then dont forget the close relationship she had with him.

To the extent that Thatcher subscribed to a coherent economic philosophy, she was a monetarist, as championed by Milton Friedman. Friedman contended that you controlled inflation by controlling the money supply. Nothing in monetarism advocates a debtor society and Friedman and his disciplines specifically argued against focussing on the level of interest rates as a measure of the stance (restrictive or expansionary) of monetary policy. According to Friedman, the rate of interest is one channel by which the money supply affects the level of aggregate demand, but it is not the only one and should never be the focus of attention. The idea that monetary policy operates through its effect on interest rates dates back to Keynes and even earlier. For decades, it was the Keynesian left rather than the Monetarist right which was the major proponent of an interest rate focussed view of monetary policy. By the way, the idea that effective interest rate policy requires that people be in debt is nonsense too. The most important reason why it is nonsense is that interest rates affect investment (including investment in owner occupied housing). The effect on personal consumption expenditures is less important in comparison. Ironically, monetarism as an economic doctrine was somewhat undermined by its own success as an ideological movement. Governments deregulated the financial system on free market ideological grounds --- just as they sought to deregulate the labour and every other market --- and the consequence of this was that credit rationing became less important and interest rates became more important. Accordingly, governments in the US, UK and Australia (among others) now use interest rates rather than the money supply as the measure of the stance of monetary policy.

John Carson

modified on Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:51 AM

Lost User

Didn't we dub that "Reaganomics" a few years ago? Been reading "Capitalism vs. Capitalism" :)

I are troll :)

Lost User · modified on Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:51 AM

To state that using interest rates as a tool to affect free money does not require an indebted society is ridiculous. How the hell will interest rates affect free money otherwise!

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

John Carson

fat_boy wrote:

To state that using interest rates as a tool to affect free money does not require an indebted society is ridiculous. How the hell will interest rates affect free money otherwise!

http://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/View.aspx?fid=2605&msg=2873542[^]

John Carson

Lost User

John Carson wrote:

http://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/View.aspx?fid=2605&msg=2873542\[^\]

= lots of words, no substance.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription