3. The Money Supply and the Psbr

Abstract

The relation between the government's need to borrow and the stock of money in the country is a complex one. It is affected by the nature of the expenditures and revenues which require the borrowing and by the way in which the borrowing is financed. From time to time it has been suggested that nevertheless the two magnitudes have moved together in a stable manner. In this article we demonstrate that no such convenient coincidental movement appears to have been recorded in the UK and hence that it is possible for the government to permit variations in the PSBR to try to offset the recession even while maintaining a medium-term regime of monetary targets. The article was written