Scott Sumner

Scott Sumner is an American monetary economist known for his contributions to market monetarism, a school of economic thought that has influenced debates on central banking and monetary policy. Sumner holds the Ralph G. Hawtrey Chair of Monetary Policy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, is Professor Emeritus at Bentley University, and serves as a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. Sumner's research focuses on monetary policy, the international gold market's role in the Great Depression, and the history of macroeconomic thought.

Sumner's economics blog, "The Money Illusion," played a significant role in popularizing nominal GDP targeting, a policy approach suggesting that the Federal Reserve and other central banks should target nominal GDP—real GDP growth plus inflation—to guide business investment. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Sumner used his blog to challenge the prevailing view that the United States economy was trapped in a liquidity trap. He argued that the financial crisis and subsequent recession were caused by tight monetary policy, and that policy remained restrictive even as the Federal Reserve intervened in financial markets and purchased large quantities of assets. After the Federal Reserve announced a new round of quantitative easing, some media outlets referred to Sumner as the "blogger who saved the economy" for his advocacy of nominal income targeting.

Market monetarism, a school of economics, has developed around Sumner's views. The Daily Telegraph international business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard described Sumner as the leading figure in market monetarism. The Chronicle of Higher Education recognized Sumner as one of the most influential economist bloggers, alongside Greg Mankiw and Paul Krugman, and Foreign Policy ranked Sumner jointly with Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke among the top global thinkers. Sumner has published research in academic journals such as Journal of Political Economy, Economic Inquiry, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking.

Sumner is the author of two books on monetary economics. In "The Midas Paradox: Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression," he examines how the Depression was prolonged by gold market shocks and New Deal wage policies. His second book, "The Money Illusion: Market Monetarism, the Great Recession, and the Future of Monetary Policy," presents a comprehensive case for market monetarism and argues that the Great Recession was primarily due to a decline in nominal GDP. Sumner's work has appeared in media outlets including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, CNBC, The Economist, Financial Times, Politico, National Interest, and The American.