[djm]

I understand the reasoning that the fed & equivalents in other countries are supposed to manage the money supply as a smoothing function in booms and busts. I have never managed to accept though that the decision making of a committee can outperform the decision making of the market itself.

[Goladus]

The problem is that market performance is never pure, and even when it is, the performance can be so volatile that side-effects permanently harm communities and subsequently offset the market performance.

And of course performance isn't everything. The 1-person committee in charge of driving a tractor trailer, for example, will deliberately choose sub-optimal performance when driving down a steep grade, because optimal short-term performance would result in a crash and complete long-term failure.