since nominal GNP depends on factors in addition to the money supply, it may end up growing at a higher or lower rate than 5 percent. Suppose, in this case, that the deviation of actual GNP growth from targeted GNP growth is less than in the previous case. Now the Fed would have more confidence in its intermediate target. It would be more confident in its ability to the GNP closer to target. The basic idea, then, is to pick an intermediate target that minimizes the variation of the final outcome of the ultimate objective. This type of thinking began to take hold at the Fed during the late 1960s. Until then, the FOMC had been operating without any explicit policy framework, and without any numerically specified operating targets. Open market policy had been formulated on the basis of an oral tradition