mechanism take place through Tobin's Q.

能够起到何种程度的作用
If one asked, what was the cause of downturns,

如果有人问衰退的原因是什么
the cause was monetary.

原因就是货币政策
The accounts of business cycle historians

跟踪这些事件的历史学家
who tracked events were couched in those terms.

在他们有关经济周期的记录中充斥着这些词汇
The enormously influential monetary history of the United States

美国那些具有深远影响力的货币政策历史
emphasized the role of monetary contractions

着重强调了货币紧缩政策
and of Federal Reserve policies.

和美联储政策的重要作用
The academic issues of the day,

今天的学术议题
which focused critically on the questions of price rigidity,

集中在对价格稳定性问题的批判性思考上
therefore led to a natural focus as the canonical experiment of--

于是自然而然如下问题成为权威的焦点
suppose you reduce M, the money stock,

假设你减少M 即货币存量