Did Milton Friedman ever study or have an opinion on Austrian Business Cycle Theory?
He says that the Fed’s tight monetary policy caused or exacerbated the Great Depression and if it had only printed more the Depression would have ended. Although the money supply decreased, as he said, by 1/3 starting at ’29, did he not look at the data of the previous 8 years of monetary inflation? Did he just not know much about ABCT which is why he didn’t see anything particular about the monetary inflation of the 20’s? Or was he stuck on the definition of inflation being the rise in prices, which would have masked the monetary inflation of the 20’s and he simply didn’t notice?
I just don’t get how he could ignore what led up to the bust, and instead just focuses on the bust and beyond.
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