a major shift in monetary policy. But there was little change at the Fed when Demo- crat Jimmy Carter replaced Ford. Even the post-Nixon shift was af- fected the need to adapt to outside economic conditions: the 1973 abandonment of fixed international exchange rates and the 1973-74 OPEC oil price hikes.
Indeed, looking back to long-term money supply growth rates since the 1950s, Beck finds no partisan pattern in Fed policy. The highest growth rate occurred under Lyndon Johnson, followed by Kennedy,...