ABSTRACT

No political scientist, no political journalist, certainly no working politician needs to be

reminded of the political nature of monetary policy, especially in a predominantly market

or mixed economy. In an inflationary age such as this surely no one can be unaware that decisions concerning the management of money substantially affect other matters of great

political sensitivity, like the relative prices of different sorts of goods or the balance of

risks and opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs. More broadly, the management of

money helps determine, in actual fact, the relative priority a particular society gives to

order as opposed to freedom, or wealth as opposed to equity.