"The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run
we are all dead."
-John Maynard Keynes, A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923)
A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923), by British economist John Maynard
Keynes, is a masterly analysis of the world monetary situation at the
beginning of the twentieth century. Keynes stated the importance of
stable domestic prices and a stable currency for a strong economy, while
arguing against the gold standard, which at that time was used for the
US dollar and many other currencies. Britain abandoned the gold standard
in 1931-after it had re-established it in 1925-and the United States
abandoned the gold standard in 1933.
A Tract on Monetary Reform is essential reading for anyone interested
in Keynes' theories and for students of economics or economic history.