Flexible Rate Research Articles

On the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy: The Experience of the Netherlands in the Years 1954-69

AGAINST THE BACKGROUND of the recent revival of the controversy between monetarists and Keynesians on the merits and demerits of monetary policy as an instrument of controlling the business cycle and of achieving a number of long-term policy objectives, the author reviews the experience of the Netherlands during the years 1954 to 1969 inclusive. An account is given of the method of monetary analysis followed by the Nederlandsche Bank and of the monetary model which the bank uses as a guide. Both are adapted to the demands of an open economy with a high level of foreign trade. The monetary policy actually pursued in the Netherlands in the aforementioned years is related. On the basis of the avaisable statistical material the relevancy of the model is checked and the behavior of a number of macroeconomic variables in periods with and without a restrictive monetary policy is described. It is concluded that the impact of monetary policy on the business cycle cannot be proven but that it is probable that the length and amplitude of the cycle are 2ffected. The potential long-term impact of monetary policy on total volume of spending-and, consequently, on growth, on the price level, and on the balance of payments-is considered to be beyond doubt. Finally, it is concluded that if monetary authorities want to give high priority to price stability they cannot escape accepting an upward flexibility of exchange rates if external monetary impulses continue to be persistently excessive.

Flexibility in Reading Rate and Einstellung

Flexibility in Reading Rate and <i>Einstellung</i>

Significant Characteristics of College Students with Varying Flexibility in Reading Rate

AN EARLY stage in learning to read is recognizing simple printed words and what they mean. With practice, recognition gradually em braces more complicated words and ideas. Then when some ideas can be understood more easily than others, a further skill is very helpful matching speed to understanding, so that simple passages take less time to read than diffic ult ones. However, most people do not acquire this knack of flexibility; they maintain a con stant rate regardless of its efficiency. Espec ially in college, where reading is the chief tool for gathering information, a student stuck in low gear is handicapped. Formulas, poems, short stories, and historical documents may all have to be understood, but understanding need not come at the same rate for all. Effic