Properties of Monetary Systems

A constant theme in Keynes1s analytic work is the design of monetary and non-monetary arrangements. Economic Consequences of the Peace is a strong critique of the arrangements proposed at the Versailles peace conference. A Tract on Monetary Reform, as the title suggests, proposes an alternative to the return to the classical gold standard. A Treatise on Money takes a deeper look at fundamental properties of money and ends with proposals for world monetary reform to reduce price variability. The General Theory tries to show why an economy remains at less than full employment, as Britain's economy had in the twenties, and proposes institutional reform, principally non-monetary reform, to remedy the problem of underemployment. Keynes last major effort, the proposal for Bretton Woods, though not written as an analytic work, was a *I am grateful to Karl Brunner and to Alex Cukierman for helping me to work my way through parts of the problem, but they are not responsible for what emerged.