This paper estimates a nonlinear Threshold-VAR to investigate if a Keynesian liquidity trap due to a speculative motive was in place in the U.S. Great Depression and the recent Great Recession. We find clear evidence in favor of a breakdown of the liquidity effect after an unexpected increase in...

This chapter explores Keynes’s monetary thought with a focus on financial instability and crises. Keynes’s early monetary work, Indian Currency and Finance (1913), shows his keen concerns for financial instabilities and his appreciation of central banks’ lender-of-last-resort role. In his...