From Geldzins und Guterpreis
Knut Wicksell, 1898:
Those people who prefer a continually upward moving to a stationary price level forciblyremind one of those who purposely keep their watches a little fast so as to be more certain of catching their trains. But to achieve their purpose they must not be conscious or remain conscious of the fact that their watches are fast; otherwise they become accustomed to take the extra few minutes into account and so after all, in spite of their artfulness, arrive too late....
It follows that... the ideal position, affording common advantage to the overwhelming majority... would undoubtedly be one in which... the general average level of money prices... would be perfectly invariable and stable.
And why should not such regulation lie within the scope of practical politics?... Absolute prices... are a matter in the final analysis of pure convention, depending on the choice of a standard of prices which it lies within our power to make.... [I]t is the part of man to be master, not slave, of nature, and not least in a sphere of such extraordinary significance as that of monetary influences...
