František Svoboda

Looking for Stability: Repercussions of the Russian Revolution in the Work of John Maynard Keynes

The paper analyses and proposes an answer to the question of how the Russian revolution is reflected in the work of John Maynard Keynes. The starting point of the analysis is an interesting yet not very well known episode of the economist’s life: a period when Keynes, then a British Treasury official, was entrusted with the task of creating a currency for Northern Russia. The ensuing design and architecture of the North Russian rouble virtually became an opportunity for Keynes to put into practice some of his general currency-related ideas, and the entire project influenced Keynes’s economic thought in two specific ways. First, the Russian experience can be traced in the economist’s reflections on two fundamentally different financial policies: the inflationary approach adopted by the Bolsheviks, and the anti-inflationary strategy of the British government. Keynes made use of his experience with the Russian hyperinflation in a multitude of his works, especially in the papers on inflation and its consequences. Second, certain elements of the project influenced the actual formation of Keynes’s view on the function and balancing of the international monetary markets. This part is based on monitoring the continuity of thoughts and actions, starting from India Currency and Finance and ending with the North Russian rouble and the design of the bancor.

Reinterpretace změn v sociálním systému v kontextu raně novověkého myšlení

Pocatek novověku, narozdil od předchozi ery, je charakteristický rostoucim významem prace v lidskem životě. Clanek se zaměřuje no nove podoby socialni politiky a na vývoj instituci zvaných pracovni domy, ktere tuto proměnu provazeji. Prace jako topos novověke socialni politiky ukazala na nove formy pomoci chudým, ktere se pak cyklicky vynořovaly vždy v ekonomicky obtižných dobach.

Tři archetypy evropské sociální politiky

Kniha s nazvem Tři archetypy evropske socialni politiky se zaměřuje na tři instituce dobrocinnosti, ktere se kontinualně vyvijely od antiky po dnesek a jsou zakladem dnesnich komplexnich systemů socialnich politik. Jedna se o dar (resp. almužnu), praci (resp. nabidku obživy) a půjcku. V knize jsou popsany a vysvětleny jejich historicke proměny, se zvlastnim zřetelem k jejich reflexi v ekonomicke teorii. Publikace propojuje starsi a novějsi instituce socialni politiky a ukazuje je jako soucast jednotneho, dlouhodobeho vývoje ekonomiky a spolecnosti.

Ekonomika daru, dar a jeho reflexe v ekonomické teorii

This paper inquires into beginnings of a gift economy as well as related contemporary institutions. Gift economy and the gift as a complex phenomenon was a common base for institutions of markets, credits, taxation, alms or social security. Inquires of origins, development and contemporary forms are consequently important contributions to our understanding to contemporary social institutions. We can also inquire with economists into present forms of a gift and look for reply to different questions about efficiency of a gift: Why to give, how to give and what way give a gift.