Adventures in circular reasoning

"[Market monetarists] have a coherent model that incorporates rational expectations and efficient markets."

... Scott Sumner. 

Efficient markets require rational expectations which is the assumption that expectations are coherent with the model. He goes on to add "We have a model that can explain market responses ..." ... wait, I thought the EMH means that you can't know what the market will do?

Now I actually have learned a lot over the years from Sumner and agree with a lot of stuff that's on his blog. Actually the biggest difference between the information transfer model (ITM) and what seem to be Sumner's views is that many of the things Sumner thinks can happen at any time, the ITM says happens either when the base is low relative to NGDP or high relative to NGDP. Actually that's true of me and about any economist. High interest rates are a sign money's been loose? Yes, but only when the base is small relative to NGDP. Liquidity traps? Yes, but only when the base is large relative to NGDP. Any time there are arguments that derive from the 1970s, they seem to follow in the ITM when the base is small compared to NGDP. Anytime there are arguments that derive from the Depression or Japan since the 1990s, they seem to follow from from the ITM when the base is large compared to NGDP.

In any case, the ITM is a coherent model that incorporates maximally uninformative markets and makes no restriction on expectations.  The ITM distinguishes between the monetary base and currency and understands the temporal aspects of each. The ITM gives an explicit function for the price level and the rate of inflation, unlike Market Monetarists or New Keynesians. It explains the liquidity trap and diminishing effect of monetary expansion. It explains Abenomics. In fact, it gives a coherent view of the history of economic thought and economic performance in the US from before the Great Depression to the present. [1]

What it doesn't have is support [2] from anyone with an economics degree :)

[1] If you read Sumner's linked post, it'll explain the joke.
[2] Noah Smith favoriting my tweets doesn't count.