La funzione della politica monetaria

What Monetary Policy Can and Cannot Do

Abstract disponibile solo in lingua inglese

In their analysis of monetary policy, observers and actors are tending more and more to concentrate their attention on the interpretation of the actions of decision-makers and the details of their implementation. The effect of this obsession with detail has led them to lose sight of long-term political objectives. Monetary policy is expected to act on real variables, such as the real interest rate or the employment rate. Yet, in reality, these variables are totally beyond its control. What monetary policy can do, first and foremost, is not transform itself into a source of disturbance for the economy. Secondly, it may also foster high, sustainable real growth by stabilising the aggregate price levels. Yet government and its agencies are unable to ensure what is the cornerstone of any market-oriented  private planning, namely a credible commitment to price stability, the effect of which would be a system of low, stable interest rates. If the monetary authorities were prepared to make a pledge of this kind and were clearly determined to maintain it, observers' attention too would shift from the perceived effects of short-term adjustments to concentrate instead on the long-term approach, the only one of fundamental significance.