ABSTRACT
Following the rapid expansion and non-growth of money in the crunch year of 1966, the Joint Economic Committee urged a policy of moderate and relatively steady increase in the money supply "generally within a range of 3-5 percent a year," with the minority members suggesting a range of 2-4 percent. Interestingly, in its current effort to sweep all demand-depository institutions into de facto Federal Reserve membership, the Fed has pleaded that "the Federal Reserve's control over bank reserves (and the money supply) has been eroding." And, ironically, the more recent proposals, squinting at socialized collection payments under Federal Reserve proprietorship, have also been based on an appeal to enhanced manageability of the money supply. It must be realized that any statutory solution does violence to one of the most revered symbols of our current monetary constitution, the independence of the Federal Reserve.
