The last few months have seen zombie ideas that were safely (or at least mostly) dead rising from the crypt. These actions again proved correct the philosopher George Santayana, who stated, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

One such zombie idea has been the influence of the executive branch of government on the central bank. Many countries throughout history have burned themselves with this fire and it seems it is the United States’ turn to take a whirl.

This move is incredibly tempting given the power that monetary policy has: the ability to control the money supply and thus short-run interest rates. Yet this temptation’s siren song has always laid a country’s financial market and economy in ruin for those who succumb to it.

In modern developed countrie

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