[Marxism] Who Said “Debauch the Currency”: Keynes or Lenin?

[Politicus E.]

A rather odd article has appeared in the new issue of the Journal of
Economic Perspectives (Volume 23, Number 2, Spring 2009 , pp.
213-222), with the title specified in the subject line.  The abstract
and URL appear below.  I am not yet quite sure what to make of it.
epoliticus

***
One frequently quoted passage from the work of John Maynard Keynes is
that “the best way to destroy the capitalist system [is] to debauch
the currency.” The passage, attributed to Vladimir Illyich Lenin,
appears in Keynes' book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, which
became an international bestseller when it was published in 1919.
Economic historian Frank W. Fetter and others have expressed doubt
that Keynes was really quoting Lenin because they found no such
statement in Lenin's collected published writings. Fetter suggested
that Keynes based his remark on stories about what the Soviets were
supposed to be saying that he heard at the Paris peace conference of
1919. It is now possible to show that Keynes based his remark on a
report of an interview with Lenin published by London and New York
newspapers in April 1919. Keynes' discussion of inflation in the
Economic Consequences can then be read as an extended commentary on
the remarks attributed to Lenin in the interview. While the report of
the interview was not reprinted after 1919, it will be also shown here
that Lenin responded to Keynes in a speech that was reprinted in his
Collected Works.
***

Source:
<http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aea/jep/2009/00000023/00000002/art00011>