Why Did Conservatives Ditch Monetary Stimulus?

During the dog days of the Great Recession, several economists developed a persuasive case that the Federal Reserve was badly bungling monetary policy. Led by Scott Sumner, these "market monetarists" argued that the Fed should be far more prepared to unleash monetary stimulus. To do this, the central bank would have to abandon its dual mandate of keeping unemployment and inflation low, and adopt a much simpler metric: a nominal gross domestic product (NGDP) growth target.