The "Neglected Prophet," Silvio Gesell, on Postponing Depressions Indefinitely by Keeping Money Rolling through Fear of Its Depreciation

Another precursor of Keynes was the "unduly neglected prophet, Silvio Gesell," the proponent of Schwundgeld (vanishing money). Gesell's book, Die Verstaatlichung des Geldes (1891), was well known in continental Europe, especially in Switzerland. But despite wide propaganda by clubs formed to spread his theories, it was not taken seriously either. The proposition that depressions could be postponed indefinitely by keeping money rolling through fear of its depreciation rather than by correcting maladjustments seemed too absurd.

--L. Albert Hahn, "Continental European Pre-Keynesianism," in The Critics of Keynesian Economics, ed. Henry Hazlitt (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995), 288.