Skip to main content
View expanded cover

Financial Crises and the Nature of Capitalist Money pp 79–100Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

A New Meme for Money

  • Chapter

Abstract

As my economics training began in the Institutionalist tradition, I was exposed from the start to the view that money is not a ‘thing’ but rather an institution. This meant more than the obvious fact that most of our ‘money supply’ is issued by private bank ‘institutions’. Institutionalists define institutions broadly to include socialized patterns of behaviour or even thought. Dudley Dillard was foremost among Institutionalists for emphasizing that money is an institution. However, I have to admit that exactly what is meant by the phrase ‘money is a social relation’ was left rather hazy.

Keywords

  • Government Spending
  • Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium
  • Public Purpose
  • Tribal Society
  • State Money

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1057/9781137302953_6
  • Chapter length: 22 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-1-137-30295-3
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Geoffrey Ingham, ‘The Emergence of Capitalist Credit Money’, in Wray (ed.), Credit and State Theories of Money: The Contributions of A. Mitchell Innes. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2004, pp. 173–222 (p. 179). This follows the argument he had previously made in his 1996 article ‘Money is a Social Relation’, Review of Social Economy, 54(4), 507–29, and ‘“Babylonian Madness”: On the Sociological and Historical “Origins” of Money’, in John Smithin (ed.), What is Money? London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp 16–41. The latter chapter was the first piece that exposed me to Geoff’s work.

    Google Scholar 

  2. The best place to start for a sociological approach to money is with Geoffrey Ingham, The Nature of Money. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  3. See also Wray (ed.), Credit and State Theories of Money: The Contributions of A. Mitchell Innes. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2004 for a number of contributions that counter the story told by economists.

    Google Scholar 

  4. George Lakoff, Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  5. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme, and Jack Balin, Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  6. See Philip Grierson, The Origins of Money. London: The Athlone Press, 1977

    Google Scholar 

  7. also see L. Randall Wray, Understanding Modern Money: The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  8. See, for example, Dudley Dillard, ‘A Monetary Theory of Production: Keynes and the Institutionalists’, Journal of Economic Issues, 14 (1980): 255–73.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  9. Charles Goodhart, ‘Two Concepts of Money: Implications for the Analysis of Optimal Currency Areas’, European Journal of Political Economy, 14(1998): 407–32.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  10. J. Fagg Foster, ‘The Reality of the Present and the Challenge of the Future’, Journal of Economic Issues, 15(4) (1981): 1963.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. L. Randall Wray
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Honorary Professor in Sociology, Senior Visiting Fellow, IRRC, Faculty of the Australian School of Business, Professorial Research Fellow, Macquarie University, Australia

    Jocelyn Pixley

  2. Honorary Professor in Sociology, Senior Visiting Fellow, IRRC, Faculty of the Australian School of Business, Professorial Research Fellow, Visiting Professorial Fellow in the School of Economics, Faculty of the Australian School of Business, Emeritus Reader in the History of Economic Theory, Professor Emeritus, University of New South Wales, Australia

    Jocelyn Pixley & G. C. Harcourt & 

  3. Honorary Professor in Sociology, Senior Visiting Fellow, IRRC, Faculty of the Australian School of Business, Professorial Research Fellow, Global Policy Institute, London Metropolitan University, UK

    Jocelyn Pixley

  4. Visiting Professorial Fellow in the School of Economics, Faculty of the Australian School of Business, Emeritus Reader in the History of Economic Theory, Professor Emeritus, Cambridge University, UK

    G. C. Harcourt

  5. Visiting Professorial Fellow in the School of Economics, Faculty of the Australian School of Business, Emeritus Reader in the History of Economic Theory, Professor Emeritus, University of Adelaide, Australia

    G. C. Harcourt

Copyright information

© 2013 L. Randall Wray

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wray, L.R. (2013). A New Meme for Money. In: Pixley, J., Harcourt, G.C. (eds) Financial Crises and the Nature of Capitalist Money. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137302953_6

Download citation