Weekly Economic Commentary

Silvio Gesell was an early 20th-century economist who was described by John Maynard Keynes as “a strange, unduly neglected prophet.” To stimulate demand, Gesell recommended measures that would make it costly to save. He suggested paper money with an expiration date, allowing extensions only if a fee was paid. Gesell’s ideas were deemed polemical back then; they didn’t even get a fair hearing during the Great Depression.