Money, Capital Turnover, and the Leisure Class: Thorstein Veblen’s Tips for a Monetary Theory of Production

Guglielmo Forges Davanzati and Riccardo Realfonzo

Chapter 7 in The Political Economy of Monetary Circuits, 2009, pp 116-137 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Many contemporary scholars maintain that significant similarities can be traced between Veblen’s theoretical framework and Keynes’s approach, with particular reference to the so-called monetary theory of production (hereafter MTP). In particular, Vining (1939) argues that Veblen should be counted as one of the authors who ‘anticipated’ Keynes’s theory of effective demand, and his monetary conception of the interest rate. Vianello (1961, p. 252) stresses the shared conviction — on the part of both Veblen and Keynes — that the interest rate is not determined by the supply-demand mechanism, and that its variations play a crucial role in determining economic crises. Dillard (1987) emphasizes that Veblen’s dichotomy between industrial and pecuniary employment is a key issue of the MTP and that relevant analogies between Veblen’s and Keynes’s views of the functioning of monetary economies are to be considered: Money is a form of private property that wealth holders in business enterprise economy at times treasure more than income itself. It is a device for limiting losses in a profit-and-loss economy. The moral of Veblen’s teaching is that in a pecuniary economy, monetary values dominate industrial values. (Dillard, 1987, p. 1646)

Keywords: Interest Rate; Political Economy; Income Distribution; Real Wage; Money Supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-24572-3_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230245723

DOI: 10.1057/9780230245723_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().