A monetarist is an economist who holds the strong belief that the

economy's performance is determined almost entirely by changes

in the money supply. Monetarists postulate that the economic
health of an economy can be best controlled by changes in the
monetary supply, or money, by a governing body.

At its core, monetarism is an economic formula. It states

that money supply multiplied by its velocity (the rate at which
money changes hands in an economy) is equal to nominal
expenditures in the economy (goods and services multiplied by
price). While this makes sense, monetarists say velocity is
generally stable, which is up for debate.

The most well-known monetarist is Milton Friedman

Most monetarists opposed the gold standard in that the limited

supply of gold would stall the amount of money in the system,
which would lead to inflation, something monetarists believe
should be controlled by the money supply, which is not possible
under the gold standard unless gold is continually mined.

Monetarists view got further credibility when the gold standard

collapsed in 1972. As unemployment and inflation
soared, Keynesian economics, which was often contrasted to
monetarism, was unable to explain the way out of the economic
puzzle. On one hand Keynesian economics said high
unemployment called for reflation - an increase in the money
supply, and on the other hand, rising inflation called for a
Keynesian disinflation strategy.