> > John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace, pp. 11-12:
>>
>> The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his
>> morning tea in bed
>
>How many people had phones during Keynes' day? Relatively few.
>
>> delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment and by the
>> same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new
>> enterprises of any quarter of the world,
>
>How many Londoners owned bonds? Fewer still.
>
>> [He] could
>> despatch his servant to the neighboring office of a bank for such
>> supply of the precious metals as might seem convenient
>
>Servants, indeed. Keynes is talking about a tiny sinecured elite, not the
>average Londoner.
>
>My point is that multinational capitalism is inconceivably more ubiquitous
>and totalizing than its monopoly-era predecessor.
Keynes's point doesn't depend on how pervasive the practices were; it's about complacency in the face of imminent disaster. He was summarizing attitudes of the European elite on the eve of WW I. If the attitude is even more widespread now, you could read it as strengthening his point rather than undermining it.
Doug