October 11, 2018 Thursday
Bedtime Story
In Praise of Gesell
Those few economists who did read Gesell’s
‘The Natural Economic Order’ (1916) and the ideas concerning free trade,
economic liberalism and equal opportunity for all to participate in such a
system found it worthy of consideration.
You must make a note that is such a
hypothetical system proposed by Gesell it was presumed that there would exist
no national or political boundaries.
There would exist no racial or ethnicity
barriers when it comes to trade and economics – a highly enlightened idea in
the early twentieth century.
All that would matter was talent and merit
and their active participation in a free liberal economy where everybody would
try to produce, create, explore and offer services that he or she was best
gifted with.
Knowing human apes and their consistent
inconsistencies, irrationalities and weaknesses, no matter how perfect an
economic system one plans to device, eventually they all suffer serious mishaps,
crises and eventually fail and fall.
And yet some system has to be devised and
followed since once born an attempt has to made to salvage ourselves from us.
Gesell was admired by other economists other
than Keynes.
One rather suggestive word of praise from
such an economist as follows:
“Gesell is the founder of free economy, an
economic outsider who nevertheless was recognized by Keynes, in a certain
sense, as his forerunner.
He is therefore still considered to be
above all a Keynesian economist, even a kind of hyper-Keynesian, that is to
say, an advocate of a school that propagates the lowest (nominal) interest rate
possible as means of avoiding crises.
Gesell, however, also recognized that the
problem of a crisis cannot be solved solely by reducing the rates of interest…
Gesell suggests, therefore, as the
necessary correlative to the introduction of ‘free money’…the introduction of
‘free land’…
Gesell’s chief work thus carries the title
‘A Natural Economic Order Through Free Land and Free Money’.
It proves that the real aspects of an
economy – that is to say, the claim on land or resources – must never be lost
from view, even if primary importance is attached to monetary factors.
This was recognized more clearly by Gesell
than by Keynes.”
This is all that I have to say about Sylvio
Gesell, a largely unknown economist but to many modern economists perhaps an
original thinker and a forerunner of a fresh economic view concerning free
trade.
Now I shall briefly return to Keynes before
I do away completely with him.
In his earlier and lesser known work of
1930 titled ‘A Treatise on Money’ too Keynes had dwelt upon the idea of savings
and its association with recession.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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