Given the renewed interest in negative interest rates as method for removing the floor to nominal interest rates, this article offers a concise review of Gesell's life, work and its place in the history of economic thought. It provides a brief biographical sketch of Gesell, demonstrating both...

Given the renewed interest in negative interest rates, this article analyses Gesell’s theory of interest and its connection to J. M. Keynes’ General Theory. Gesell recognised that money has little or no carrying costs in comparison to goods. Therefore, money holders are able to withhold from...

My article is an impetus for a discussion on liberal aspect of the thinking of social democratic politician and economist Josef Macek (1887-1972). In the first part I define Macek´s approach to liberalism (his understanding of the basic notions, concept of the relationship between an individual...

Blending past and present, this brief history of economics is the perfect book for introducing students to the field. A Brief History of Economics illustrates how the ideas of the great economists not only influenced societies but were themselves shaped by their cultural milieu. Understanding...

In A Tract on Monetary Reform John Maynard Keynes proposed to use the monetary base and the reserve-deposit ratio as main instruments of a monetary policy considered until then as no required. Beyond the concept of cycle credit developed in this book we find the first steps leading towards the...

Four talks on Keynes in relation to the Bloomsbury Group: I. Maynard Keynes of Bloomsbury (Craufurd Goodwin); II. Keynes as Policy Advisor (E. Roy Weintraub); III. Keynes and Economics (Kevin D. Hoover); IV. Keynes and Hayek (Bruce Caldwell). The talks were delivered as part of roundtable...

This note discusses some ideas in regards to the character, method, and identity of historians of economic thought. They may be considered “generalist” economists, who hold knowledge of general theories. This knowledge allows them to establish links between different fields of specialization...

This paper provides a comparison between Adam Smith and David Ricardo’s treatments of poverty in a capitalist society. The comparison focus on the different arguments they use to relate poverty to inequality and institutional realities. The discussion points out the life experiences of each...

This paper reviews the historical roots of Marx's labor theory of value and some contemporary contributions to the critique of this theory. Modern commentary on Marx's labor theory of value based on dual system of parallel prices and embodied labor coefficients loses sight of the theory's roots...