monetarism

American  

[mon-i-tuh-riz-uhm, muhn-] / ˈmɒn ɪ təˌrɪz əm, ˈmʌn- /

noun

Economics.

1. a doctrine holding that changes in the money supply determine the direction of a nation's economy.

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monetarism British  

/ ˈmʌnɪtəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. the theory that inflation is caused by an excess quantity of money in an economy

2. an economic policy based on this theory and on a belief in the efficiency of free market forces, that gives priority to achieving price stability by monetary control, balanced budgets, etc, and maintains that unemployment results from excessive real wage rates and cannot be controlled by Keynesian demand management

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monetarism Cultural  

1. The economic doctrine that the supply of money has a major impact on a nation's economic growth. For example, monetarists prefer to control inflation by restricting the growth of a nation's money supply rather than by raising taxes. The doctrine is associated with Milton Friedman.

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Other Word Forms

• monetarist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of monetarism

An Americanism dating back to 1965–70; monetar(y) + -ism

Example Sentences

Warsh wants to see a return of monetarism, a line of thinking that says increases in the money supply can drive inflation.

From Barron's • Oct. 9, 2025

The influence of the econcons peaked in the late 1970s with Milton Friedman's monetarism and Arthur Laffer's curve.

From Salon • Jul. 1, 2023

Yet even Volcker, who pioneered the use of monetarism at the Fed, ultimately abandoned a strict reliance upon money supply growth in managing the economy.

From Washington Post • Feb. 6, 2022

It is the approach often known as monetarism, associated particularly with the Nobel Prize winning economist, the late Milton Friedman.

From BBC • Mar. 10, 2015

Friedman’s monetarism and his advocacy for flexible over fixed exchange rates became mainstream during my early Fed years.

From Forbes • Jul. 31, 2014