IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/sprchp/978-3-031-17414-8_22.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Milton Friedman’s Views on Method and Money Reconsidered in Light of the Housing Bubble

In: The Emergence of a Tradition: Essays in Honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto, Volume I

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph T. Salerno

    (Mises Institute)

Abstract

This paper argues that Milton Friedman failed to recognize the asset bubbles leading up to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. It attributes this failure to the inductivist method that Friedman and Anna Schwartz used to formulate the quantity theory at the heart of the doctrine of monetarism. The “clinical method” used by Friedman and Schwartz was derived from Wesley C. Mitchell’s work on business cycles and was not the method that Friedman propounded in his famous essay on positive economics. The clinical method of theory construction, because it relies heavily on statistical correlations between the money supply and other aggregate variables, led to a simplistic and truncated theory of the monetary transmission mechanism which completely neglected its complex “microeconomic” network of channels and pathways, particularly as they relate to the financial markets and the structure of capital and production.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph T. Salerno, 2023. "Milton Friedman’s Views on Method and Money Reconsidered in Light of the Housing Bubble," Springer Books, in: David Howden & Philipp Bagus (ed.), The Emergence of a Tradition: Essays in Honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto, Volume I, pages 263-291, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-17414-8_22
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-17414-8_22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Taylor, John B., 2001. "An Interview With Milton Friedman," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 101-131, February.
    2. Robert L. Hetzel, 2007. "The contributions of Milton Friedman to economics," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 93(Win), pages 1-30.
    3. James Lothian, 2011. "Why Money Matters: A Fourth Natural Experiment," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 179-187, April.
    4. Kevin Hoover, 2004. "Milton Friedman?s Stance: The Methodology of Causal Realism," Working Papers 222, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    5. Arthur F. Burns & Wesley C. Mitchell, 1946. "Measuring Business Cycles," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number burn46-1.
    6. Lothian, James R., 2009. "Milton Friedman's monetary economics and the quantity-theory tradition," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 1086-1096, November.
    7. Hugh Rockoff, 2010. "On the Origins of A Monetary History," Chapters, in: Ross B. Emmett (ed.), The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Edward Nelson, 2007. "Milton Friedman and U.S. monetary history: 1961-2006," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 89(May), pages 153-182.
    9. Milton Friedman & Anna J. Schwartz, 1963. "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie63-1.
    10. Kevin Hoover, 2004. "Milton Friedman?s Stance: The Methodology of Causal Realism," Working Papers 66, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    11. Milton Friedman, 2004. "Reflections on A Monetary History," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 23(3), pages 349-351, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Evans N. N. D. Ocansey & Philomena Dadzie & Nicholas Bamegne Nambie, 2024. "Mobile Money Use, Digital Banking Services and Velocity of Money in Ghana," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 14(2), pages 218-233, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. George S. Tavlas, 2015. "In Old Chicago: Simons, Friedman, and the Development of Monetary‐Policy Rules," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(1), pages 99-121, February.
    2. James R. Lothian & George S. Tavlas, 2018. "How Friedman and Schwartz Became Monetarists," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 757-787, June.
    3. Lothian, James R., 2014. "Monetary policy and the twin crises," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(PB), pages 197-210.
    4. Sylvie Rivot, 2015. "Rule-based frameworks in historical perspective: Keynes' and Friedman's monetary policies versus contemporary policy-rules," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 601-633, August.
    5. Valentina Aprigliano & Danilo Liberati, 2021. "Using Credit Variables to Date Business Cycle and to Estimate the Probabilities of Recession in Real Time," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 89(S1), pages 76-96, September.
    6. Bordo, Michael D. & Rockoff, Hugh, 2013. "The Influence Of Irving Fisher On Milton Friedman’S Monetary Economics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 153-177, June.
    7. Oleg Korenok & Stanislav Radchenko, 2004. "Monetary Policy Effect on the Business Cycle Fluctuations: Output vs. Index Measures of the Cycle," Macroeconomics 0409015, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Sep 2004.
    8. Chatelain, Jean-Bernard & Ralf, Kirsten, 2018. "Publish and Perish: Creative Destruction and Macroeconomic Theory," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(2), pages 65-101.
    9. Robert W. Dimand, 2012. "The Roots of the Present are in the Past: The Relation of Postwar Developments in Macroeconomics to Interwar Business Cycle and Monetary Theory," Chapters, in: Thomas Cate (ed.), Keynes’s General Theory, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Mario Crucini & Ayhan Kose & Christopher Otrok, 2011. "What are the driving forces of international business cycles?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(1), pages 156-175, January.
    11. Khan, Haider A., 2008. "Friedman’s Methodology: A Puzzle and A Proposal for Generating Useful Debates through Causal Comparisons (with a postscript on positive vs. normative theories)," MPRA Paper 7457, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2008.
    12. Pedro Garcia Duarte, 2015. "From real business cycle and new Keynesian to DSGE Macroeconomics: facts and models in the emergence of a consensus," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_05, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    13. Michael T. Belongia & Peter N. Ireland, 2015. "Interest Rates and Money in the Measurement of Monetary Policy," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 255-269, April.
    14. Hansen, G.D. & Ohanian, L.E., 2016. "Neoclassical Models in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2043-2130, Elsevier.
    15. Galbács Peter, 2021. "What did it take for Lucas to set up ‘useful’ analogue systems in monetary business cycle theory?," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 7(3), pages 61-82, September.
    16. Nelson, Edward, 2013. "Friedman's monetary economics in practice," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 59-83.
    17. Velde, François R., 2022. "What Happened to the U.S. Economy during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic? A View Through High-Frequency Data," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(1), pages 284-326, March.
    18. Candelon, Bertrand & Metiu, Norbert & Straetmans, Stefan, 2013. "Disentangling economic recessions and depressions," Discussion Papers 43/2013, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    19. Silvana Bartoletto & Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano & Paolo Piselli, 2015. "Business Cycles, Credit Cycles and Bank Holdings of Sovereign Bonds: Historical Evidence for Italy 1861-2013," CESifo Working Paper Series 5318, CESifo.
    20. Michael D. Bordo & Joseph G. Haubrich, 2017. "Deep Recessions, Fast Recoveries, And Financial Crises: Evidence From The American Record," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 527-541, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-17414-8_22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.