Economist Mark Thoma
@ NY Daily News:
When Mitt Romney introduced Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate in the presidential election, he emphasized
that Ryan “has become an intellectual leader of the Republican Party”
on economic policy. But a close examination of Ryan’s monetary and
fiscal policy proposals makes it hard to understand why he is held in
such high regard.
Ryan’s views on monetary policy are, by his own admission, heavily influenced by Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Concerns about inflation – currency debasement – are prominent in Rand’s novel, and those concerns drive Ryan’s monetary policy proposals. For example, Ryan introduced legislation
in 2008 to replace the Fed’s dual mandate to stabilize both inflation
and employment with a single mandate to stabilize inflation. Under
Ryan’s proposal, the Fed would ignore employment when making policy
decisions.
Ryan’s lack of concern over employment is disconcerting, but
it’s at least possible to find economists who support a single
inflation mandate for the Fed. It’s much harder to find anyone who will
support another inflation prevention policy Ryan has proposed, a policy similar to a gold standard.