Lord John Keynes - definitely worth reading. The guy's books lay in the foundation of the modern monetary system. Inflationist - one of his ideas was that central bank should take care to keep inflation above zero and avoid deflation by printing money. The simplified line of reasoning - it is easier to increase the paycheck than to cut it. In the deflationary environment employee will tend to fire the people, instead of cutting the paychecks. The guys books delivered last blow to the gold standard. And today paper money (actually not even paper) rule and gold is trash for developing nations. Indeed, who needs it ? This is just metal, like any other. And steady or less steady inflation brings political gains to the ruling classes which are hard to overestimate.