As the GOP’s presidential hopefuls formulate their national economic agendas, one question looms large: What are they going to do about the Federal Reserve? 

America’s central bank has gone off the rails. Its monetary mischief in the wake of COVID-19 caused the largest inflationary surge in 40 years. Its regulators have systematically failed to keep the banking system stable, as exhibited by recent bank failures. And its agenda-setters have waded into policy areas totally irrelevant to its mandate, such as racial justice and climate change. Any serious Republican candidate must have a strategy for reining in the Fed.

Three contenders have weighed in on the Fed in a significant way: financier Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott, and Governor Ron DeSantis. Each of them has articulated, in word or deed, the beginnings of a Fed reform program. But none of them have devised a comprehensive plan to bring the rule of law to monetary policy. Voters need much more detail.

Ramaswamy came out swinging with a Wall Street Journal op-ed proposing considerable changes to Fed operating procedures. He wants the Fed to focus on stabilizing the dollar’s purchasing power by targeting a basket of commodities. There are several ways to do this, each with its costs and benefits. 

While Ramaswamy deserves credit for his ambition, there’s much in his opening salvo that’s unsatisfactory. Particularly worrying is his disavowal of economic stabilization policy by the Fed. In fact, smoothing out undesirable macroeconomic fluctuation is pretty much the only thing the Fed can do. That Ramaswamy doesn’t seem to understand the link between dollar stabilization and recession fighting is concerning.