Monetarists

The economic doctrine that the supply of money has a major impact on a nation's economic growth. For example, monetarists prefer to control inflation by restricting the growth of a nation's money supply rather than by raising taxes. The doctrine is associated with Milton Friedman.

monetarism

An economic theory, the proponents of which argue that economic variations, such as changes in prices and output, are primarily the result of changes in the money supply. (Thus, the Federal Reserve Board is the most important economic policymaker in the country.) Proponents of monetarism believe that changes in the money supply precede changes in other economic variables, including stock prices, and that a rational policy calls for moderate, steady increases in the money supply.