Money

Sept. 12

Davis, the author of Money has a fertile thinking mind.

-- He sees money as an institution.

-- Sees it as a human institution with facets not observed by others.

-- Sees it in relation to revolution as well as population.

-- Sees poverty can be eradicated by mastering money.

-- Sees it as an instrument of civilised living.

-- Quotes Shaw and Johnson against Bible, ridding money of its stigma.

-- He does see that money has other facets not fully understood and may see thec

value of using velocity of money for progress. I wish to think about the other

missing facets of money power.

The idea of writing a book on Money as the organisation of social development is fascinating but is challenging. As HE says, perhaps when an organisation is born, all its capacities emerge. Later we find only their extended application.

"...So, today our lack of mastery of money is in large part the cause of

widespread relative poverty and mass unemployment, while the enormous waste of

potential output foregone is lost forever."

"Economists...have placed insufficient emphasis on money's wider social,

institutional and psychological aspects."

"money is one of the oldest and most widespread of human institutions."

-- Bible's 'love of money is at the root of all evil' is turned by Bernard

Shaw's 'the lack of money is at the root of all evil.'

-- In Friedman's influential book FREE TO CHOOSE, there is no mention of the

population problem.

-- With the divide between the primitive and modern being marked by the rise of

money economy.

-- Monetary innovations were essential stimulants in the process of economic

activities and their development.

-- Foreign trade and early coinage were mutual stimulants.

-- The Greeks became coin makers very largely from non-economic motives (which

means coin making has other social origins too).

-- Not the US financial systems but agriculture is the source of strength of the

$ since 1931.

-- The un-understanding and stupid moves of UK to suppress the newly evolving

paper money is cited as one cause for the revolution.

-- Just as war against France gave rise to Bank of England, the same military

necessity on the other side of the Atlantic gave rise to the first governmental

issue of notes.

-- Taxation is an economic qualification of political freedom.

--  Thomas Paine "no nation must be without a national debt because national

debt is a national bond."

-- In Britain and USA, inflation increased after the change from Keynesian to

moneterist policies.

-- Minting is an alternative to taxes.

-- Absence of money intensified the breakdown of civilised living.

-- Money is not an inert object but is responsive to society's demands.

-- Money is the most long-rooted of human institutions.

--  It is not sufficiently emphasized that money contains within  its many-sided

nature dynamic features that can also be destablising.

-- Monetary policies'.....theoretical goal of equilibrium.

-- Billion of fingers...in a borderless world will keep monetary authorities on

their toes as new definition of money will be dictated by the electronic age --

the chip will turn Blake's vision into virtual reality.

   Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

   And Eternity in an hour.