Premium
Free Money for Social Progress
Author(s) -
Blanc Jér$ocme
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1998.tb03376.x
Subject(s) - circulation (fluid dynamics) , great depression , order (exchange) , context (archaeology) , monetary system , economics , money creation , keynesian economics , economy , monetary policy , central bank , finance , political science , law , history , engineering , archaeology , aerospace engineering
A bstract Silvio Gesell (1862‐1930) proposed a system of stamped money in order to accelerate monetary circulation and to free money from interest. This was part of a global socialist system intended to free the economy from rent and interest. In the 1930s, Irving Fisher, who proposed the system to President Roosevelt, and John Maynard Keynes rendered homage to Gesell's monetary proposals in the context of the economic depression. Several experiments took place that were based on his ideas, notably in the Austrian town of Wörgl and in the United States. These experiments were always local and never lasted more than a few months. This article shows that trust is the main issue of this kind of monetary organization; and therefore, that such experiments can only take place successfully on a small scale.