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Milton Friedman on Monetary policy and the Federal Reserve

The future well-being of this country depends critically on whether, this time, intentions are translated promptly into performance.
Perspective on Inflation
Column, 1974, Newsweek (June 1974); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, June 18, 1974, pp. 19786 to 19787, introduced by Representative Jack Kemp of New York, who calls it “his column this week in Newsweek.” The reprint gives no issue date, and the chart that ran with the column is not reproduced, Congressional Record, June 18, 1974, pp. 19786 to 19787
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  1. Over short periods, the relation between growth in money and growth in nominal income is often hard to see, partly because the relation is less close for short than for long periods, but mostly because it takes time for changes in monetary growth to affect income. And how long a time is itself variable. Today's income growth is not closely related to today's monetary growth; it depends on what has been happening to money in the past. What happens to money today affects what is going to happen to income in the future
    Money Mischief
    Book, 1992, Ch. 2 The Mystery of Money
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  2. I should like to emphasize that I do not regard this proposal as a be-all and end-all of monetary management, as a rule which is somehow to be written in tablets of gold and enshrined for all future time. ( … ) Such a rule seems to me the only feasible device currently available for converting monetary policy into a pillar of a free society rather than a threat to its foundation.
    Should There Be an Independent Monetary Authority?
    Journal article, 1962, In Search of a Monetary Constitution, ed. Leland B. Yeager (Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 219–243; reprinted in the House Banking and Currency Committee’s 1968 Compendium on Monetary Policy Guidelines and Federal Reserve Structure, pp. 205–214, p. 214 of the 1968 House reprint
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  3. The United Nations recently renewed and strengthened its sanctions against Rhodesia. The U.S. regrettably concurred. We have, however, had enough sense to continue buying chrome from Rhodesia under the Byrd amendment, rather than, as we did for a time, in effect forcing Rhodesia to sell its chrome to Russia (also technically a party to the sanctions) which promptly sold us chrome at double the price.
    Rhodesia
    Column, 1976, Newsweek, May 3, 1976; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 29, 1976, pp. 11979 to 11980, introduced by Representative John Ashbrook of Ohio, who gives it as “an excellent article on Rhodesia by Milton Friedman, which appeared in the May 3 edition of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, April 29, 1976, p. 11979
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