Economic Quarterly

Implicitly, central banks reject the propositions of monetarism. They do not characterize themselves as creators of money, but instead emphasize their role in influencing financial intermediation. They do not discuss monetary policy in terms of a rule, but instead use the language of discretion. They refer to the low level of interest rates to characterize monetary policy as stimulative despite low rates of growth of money and nominal gross domestic product. The question arises of whether monetarist ideas retain any relevance for central banks.