This paper endeavors to examine the basic idea in Richard Epstein’s book Simple Rules for a Complex World. It does so by considering a specific simple rule which was explicitly designed for complex world. A basic idea in Epstein’s book is that the more complex is the world the better is the case for simple rules. To show this, he develops six simple rules pertaining to the rights of individuals, first possession, contracts, torts, government eminent domain and the power of taxation to provide public goods. This paper considers one rule rather than six rules, and it looks at monetary policy rather than policy in general. While the context is different, the case for simple rules made here provides a useful comparison with the case made by Epstein.

本文致力于检验Richard Epstein的著作《复杂世界的简单规则》中的基本思想。它是通过考虑为复杂世界明确设计的特定简单规则来实现的。爱泼斯坦的书中的一个基本思想是，世界越复杂，简单规则的情况就越好。为了证明这一点，他制定了六个简单的规则，涉及个人权利，首次拥有，合同，侵权，政府主导领域和税收提供公共物品的权力。本文考虑的是一个规则而不是六个规则，它关注的是货币政策，而不是一般性的政策。尽管上下文有所不同，但此处制定的简单规则的情况与爱泼斯坦的情况进行了有益的比较。