Speculation and buffer stocks: the legacy of Keynes and Kahn

We review Keynes’s constant concern with commodity prices, both as speculator and as theorist, arguing that it was never divorced from his view on market instability. We also look at Kahn’s contribution on buffer stocks, which brought to fruition the original intuition by Keynes, refining it with his usual attention to the finest details. Finally, we will draw some general considerations on the relevance of the proposals of stabilization of commodity prices, based on buffer stocks, in the present sentiment of ‘a return to Keynes’ in the attempt to cope with possibly the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s.