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.