Wealth & Money Quote by John Maynard Keynes

Keynes is doing something economists rarely get credit for: writing like a moralist with a ledger. The line lands because it frames inflation not as a technocratic mishap but as a political act with a crime-story method: debauch the currency, confiscate quietly, leave no fingerprints. The verbs are loaded. "Destroy" and "debauch" aren’t neutral; they suggest corruption, sabotage, a taint spreading through the bloodstream of daily life. Then comes the knife twist: "secretly and unobserved". Even if people feel prices rising, they don’t experience it as a bill with a sender. That opacity is the point.

The subtext is less "markets are fragile" than "social trust is". Money is a shared fiction that only works because citizens believe the measuring stick is stable. When governments lean on inflation - whether through war finance, debt management, or political avoidance of explicit taxation - they turn that measuring stick into a moving target. The result isn’t merely fewer purchasing-power units; it’s a reordering of who gets hurt. Savers, wage earners, and anyone stuck with fixed incomes pay first. Debtors and asset holders often get a cushion. That asymmetry is why Keynes calls it confiscation: it’s redistribution without a vote.

Context matters: Keynes is reflecting on the post-World War I monetary chaos and the way inflation shredded middle-class security across Europe, destabilizing liberal politics. He’s not making a libertarian slogan; he’s warning that the quickest way to radicalize a society is to make its money feel rigged. The real target is the temptation of governments to choose stealth over accountability.