ABSTRACT
According to the bipartisan consensus economists, monetary and fiscal policies are complementary tools to be used in guiding the advanced capitalist system along a path of steady growth. Monetary policy was the preferred tool of the pre-Keynesians. Fiscal policy was favored by the mature Keynes, although his earlier Treatise on Money is still respected by the New Right. The primary employment of monetary policy also has some impact on the growth of monopoly power. The investment tax credit was initiated by President Kennedy in 1962 as tool of the New Economics in reducing fiscal drag. The investment tax credit was briefly abandoned for four months at the end of 1966, and at the beginning of the Richard Nixon Administration, but was resuscitated by Nixon's New Economic Policy. At present, it seems to be institutionalized at 10 percent rather than the original 7 percent, and there is even talk of a "refundable" investment tax credit by Senators Long and Kennedy.
