Lags in Monetary Policy

If the Monetarists thought that changing monetary policy could have a powerful impact on production and employment, why didn't they favor a government policy that would use that impact to increase employment and lessen the "pain" of economic fluctuations? Monetarists didn't feel that it would bed practical to do so, because

1. While changes in the supply of money could have a powerful impact, the impact would not come instantly -- instead it would come with a lag.
2. The lag is "long and variable." In other words, the impact might come six months after the change in the money supply, or up to two years, or anything in between.
3. By the time monetary policy has its impact, conditions probably will have changed, so that the impact of monetary policy is about as likely to make things worse as better.

Kinds of Lags