Monetary/fiscal debate

The monetary/fiscal policy debate, otherwise known as the Ando–Modigliani/Friedman–Meiselman debate (or AM/FM debate from the main instigators' initials, and for this reason sometimes jokingly called the "radio stations debate"), was the exchange of viewpoints about the comparative efficiency of monetary policies and fiscal policies that originated with a work co-authored by Milton Friedman and David I. Meiselman and first published in 1963, as part of studies submitted to the Commission on Money and Credit.

Surveys of American Economic Association (AEA) members since the 1970s have shown that professional economists generally agree with the statement: "Fiscal policy has a significant stimulative impact on a less than fully employed economy." Conversely, while a 2000 survey of AEA members found that while 72 percent generally agreed with the statement that "Management of the business cycle should be left to the Federal Reserve; activist fiscal policy should be avoided", surveys from 2011 and 2021 found 56 percent and 67 percent disagreed respectively.