the.com/monetary policy
A central bank's way of pretending interest rates are science, not vibes.
means The set of tools a central bank uses to control the money supply and interest rates in order to manage inflation, employment, and economic growth.
from 'Monetary' traces back to Latin 'moneta' — a title of the goddess Juno, in whose Roman temple coins were struck, which is also why we got the word 'money' itself. 'Policy' comes through French from Latin 'politia' and Greek 'politeia,' meaning the administration or constitution of a state — basically, how the affairs of the city are run. Stitch them together and you get a fairly modern 20th-century phrase for something ancient in spirit: rulers fiddling with coinage to steer the realm, now dressed up in central-bank committees and press conferences.
- main lever
- short-term interest rates set by central banks
- the goal
- tame inflation without strangling jobs
- lag time
- effects hit economy 12 to 18 months later
- blunt tool
- same rate hike hits everyone, rich or broke