While opinions within the neoliberal thought collective of the MPS converged on most issues, the question of the monetary system proved an exception. In his insider's history of the MPS, Max Hartwell observed that the only two topics that sparked continuous controversies were the gold standard and the related question of "fixed versus flexible exchange rates." At the 1984 conference in Cambridge, John Davenport could still draw "a laugh by observing that the original Pèlerinians could agree on everything save the subjects of God and gold."

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 413