----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- [NOTE: This DISC thread is related to the QUERY thread on "Friedman on central bank autonomy." I have separated this DISC because Robert seems to launch a new discussion. - RBE] Brad Bateman recently wrote on this list: "Perhaps what we need now is an international study group on the rise and fall of monetarism? There are many important questions and issues that simply have not been asked, much less answered". Excellent suggestion. Four areas of investigation jump to mind 1. an oral history-style series of interviews with the prominent academics of monetarism 2. an investigation of how and why Milton Friedman began, around 1951, to use the quantity theory for explicitly anti-Keynesian purposes 3. an investigation of the Keynesian early, middle and late response to the monetarist challenge 4. an investigation of the process by which monetarist ideas permeated the policy marketplace (in The Rise and Fall of Monetarism, David Smith made a start with respect to Britain). Perhaps we need a group to organise a conference (and seek funding from various central banks). Robert Leeson Murdoch University ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]