--- Max Sawicky <sawicky at bellatlantic.net> wrote: > I'm not an adept in the
Levy moneyline,
> but I do find it interesting. My comments
> preceded with 'mbs':
>
> James Baird wrote:
> >mattress, or a loan, or what have you. When the
> >government wants to spend money, it just does it - the
> >money doesn't "come from" anywhere.
>
> DH: A government, or its central bank, can create money out of the air.
> But if it does too much of that - creates money more rapidly than an
> economy's capacity to deliver goods & services - it creates
> inflation. Just because right-wingers say this doesn't mean it isn't
> true.
>
> mbs: The fact that the Gov's money creation capacities
> are limited doesn't mean they are not real. Just because
> I can't fill up Lake Erie doesn't mean I can't pee.
>
(dd): But this isn't really "creation", any more than your urination increases the amount of water in the world. Inflation of a paper currency is a form of taxation; it's a tax on holders of nominal assets.
> > Taxation happens
> >after the fact - and it ONLY has to happen in order to
> >give value to the money the gov. creates (people
> >accept government money because they have to pay
> >taxes, and money is the only thing the government
> >accepts as payment).
>
> This is the Mosler/Bell religion, but I think it's a load of crap. It
> completely neglects all the private social relations that make money
> valuable - the claim over labor time, ultimately. Money arises in
> societies with minimal government, after all. See if your landlord or
> mortgage banker will accept anything but money.
>
> mbs: I don't get this part of the faith either.
> Any agreement on a medium of exchange 'creates'
> money. It doesn't depend on taxation.
Quite; the free banking experience in Scotland proves that economic systems work just fine without a legal tender.
> I do
> like the idea of money arising as a way for
> the State to help landowners squeeze peasants
> by facilitating the creation of private debt.
Which has everything to recommend it except the fact that it didn't?
dd
===== ... in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate it. -- Bertrand Russell
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