''Keynes, the Keynesians and Monetarism is an intriguing miscellaneous of essays by one of Britain''s leading monetarist economists in the 1980s and in the 1990s. The book indeed brings together the main academic papers written by the author revising and up-to-dating the previous collection titled, Reflections on Monetarism, with the new papers published in the first years of 2000. The book by this "advocate" of monetarism is very often appealing and provocative, covering topics that are fundamental to macroeconomic thinking and policy-making. . . certainly appealing for macroeconomists and researchers. . .'' Lino Sau, History of Economic Ideas ''In the context of the current economic climate, this volume provides an excellent opportunity for reappraising the arguments on both sides of the debate. . . The importance of this volume is that it provides the interested reader with an excellent summary of the monetarist position prior to the current crisis.'' Economic Outlook and Business Review ''Tim Congdon has been Britain''s leading monetarist for about three decades. . . He has a sharp eye for statistics, for history, for the twists and flows of intellectual fads, and for the political arena where debate hardens suddenly into the stone of decision. He is subtle, practical, bellicose and highly articulate. This volume is vintage Congdon in every sense.'' Peter Sinclair, The Business Economist ''Tim Congdon''s book revisits the intellectual battlefields of British monetary theory and policy. A doughty advocate of monetarism, he is stimulating, controversial and entertaining.'' Charles Goodhart, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK ''Whether rescuing Keynes from the "Keynesians" or finding support in his earlier works for a distinctly British version of Monetarism, Tim Congdon writes with engaging and provocative enthusiasm. This is a timely collection too, coming from a long-standing exponent of ideas that policy makers are once again beginning to take seriously. It deserves the careful attention of anyone interested in British monetary policy.'' David Laidler, University of Western Ontario, Canada ''As with all Tim Congdon''s writing, beautifully written and vigorously argued.'' Robert Sidelsky, author of the biography John Maynard Keynes: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman Keynes, the Keynesians and Monetarism is a major contribution to the continuing debate on macroeconomic policy-making. Tim Congdon has been a strong supporter of monetarist economic principles for over 30 years. His writings in the newspapers and for parliamentary committees, as well as in academic journals played an influential role in the transformation of British macroeconomic policy in the 1980s and 1990s. This book brings together the main papers written by the author since his 1992 collection, Reflections on Monetarism. It challenges several ''conventional wisdoms'' about UK macroeconomic policy (and thinking about policy), arguing for example that the Keynesians'' advocacy of incomes policy and fiscal activism in the immediate post-war decades did not have a clear basis in Keynes''s own writings. The book denies that the UK had a ''Keynesian revolution'', in the sense of a deliberately pursued fiscal activism to promote ''full employment''. Implicit throughout the volume is a distinctive view of how the economy works, with an account of the transmission mechanism (from money to the economy) in which movements in asset prices and aggregate demand are strongly influenced by the quantity of money. Congdon uses this approach to demonstrate that monetary policy has had more powerful effects on macroeconomic activity in the post-war period than fiscal policy. He also suggests that the now fashionable ''New Keynesian'' view of policy-making acknowledges the primacy of monetary policy and would be better termed ''output gap monetarism''. In short, Keynes, the Keynesians and Monetarism contends that monetarism defeated Keynesianism in the battle of ideas in the 1970s and 1980s. The achievement of greater macroeconomic stability in the last 15 years is largely due to the impact of monetarist thinking on policy-making. The book is clearly and attractively written, and covers topics that are fundamental to macroeconomic thinking and policy-making. It will be a provocative and appealing read for scholars at all levels of economics, macroeconomics and monetary theory. It will also find an audience among policymakers in central banks and finance ministries, business economists working in companies, and financial economists in the City of London and other centres.

This authoritative book analyses the recent problems associated with the UK's monetary system and suggests a long-term solution to control bank lending in the future. It draws on extensive historical material, discussions with former senior officials and politicians, and the perceptive insights of Gordon Pepper, an advisor to Margaret Thatcher when the foundations of monetary control were being laid, to revisit and re-examine the monetarist experiment of the 1980s.

Economists consider the legacy of Karl Brunner’s monetarism and its influence on current debates over monetary policy. Monetarism emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a school of economic thought that questioned certain tenets of Keynesianism. Emphasizing the monetary nature of inflation and the responsibility of central banks for price stability, monetarism held sway in the inflation-plagued 1970s, but saw its influence begin to decline in the 1980s. Although Milton Friedman is the economist most closely associated with the development of monetarism, it was Karl Brunner (1916–1989) who introduced the term into the current vocabulary of economics and shaped its meaning. In this volume, leading economists—many of them Brunner’s friends and former colleagues—consider the influence of Brunner’s monetarism on current debates over monetary policy. Some contributors were participants in debates between Keynesians and monetarists; others analyze specific aspects of monetarism as theorized by Brunner and his close collaborator Allan Meltzer, or address its influence on US and European monetary policy. Others take the opportunity to examine Brunner-Meltzer monetarism through the lens of contemporary macroeconomics and monetary models. The book grows out of a symposium that marked the 100th anniversary of Brunner’s birth. Contributors Ernst Baltensperger, Michael D. Bordo, Pierrick Clerc, Alex Cukierman, Michel De Vroey, James Forder, Benjamin M. Friedman, Kevin D. Hoover, Thomas J. Jordan, David Laidler, Allan H. Meltzer, Thomas Moser, Edward Nelson, Juan Pablo Nicolini, Charles I. Plosser, Kenneth Rogoff, Marcel Savioz, Jürgen von Hagen, Stephen Williamson

First published in 1997, this volume responds to the Conservative intention of conducting economic policy along monetarist lines after winning the General Election in May 1979. Michael J. Oliver argues that the monetarist strategy was rejected for several reasons during the 1980s, including the recession of the early 1980s, the change in attitude to the role of the exchange rate and disagreements between politicians and policy-makers. It is shown that the disputes between Chancellor Nigel Lawson, Lady Thatcher and her economic adviser, Sir Alan Walters, are central to explaining why macroeconomic policy-making evolved considerably from the mid-1980s. This book is the first attempt by an economic historian to apply a social learning model to the post-1979 period. By adopting an inter-disciplinary approach, Oliver has made both an accessible addition to the debate on the conduct of economic policy since 1979 and a major contribution to the growing interest in social learning amongst social scientists.