Re: Keynes quote

[Alan G Isaac <aisaac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 08 Jul 2002 11:47:08 -0500 "William B. Ryan" <william_b_ryan@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> A text search from my electronic version of *The Consequences* returns
> this:

> "Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy
> the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a
> continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate,
> secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their
> citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they
> confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many,
> it actually enriches some."

> Keynes is attributing the thought to Lenin, not himself.

Thanks for the reference.
But keep going!  He continues:
" Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer
means of overturning the existing basis of society than to
debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces
of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a
manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."

Alan