How did these four regimes perform, and what were the critical factors that led to the move from each regime to its successor? To answer these questions we need to have in mind some criteria against which the performance of a monetary policy regime can be assessed. Most practitioners and theorists would, I think, agree on two desirable characteristics of a monetary policy regime.
First, policy needs to provide a nominal anchor for the economy: the policy regime must have the characteristic that it systematically resists excessive inflation or deflation, and thereby delivers a satisfactory degree of price stability in the long run.