On Sun, 15 Jan 2012, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Since we live under capitalist society, and credit has become more
> important than it was in the 19th century, it's pretty important to
> focus on what's different about capitalist credit.
>>> (Money itself is a form for suspending the unevenness of the times
>>> required in different branches of production, to the extent that this
>>> obstructs exchange.)
>>
>> I read that as a parenthetical refer by Marx to an age of barter that
>> precedes the use of money. Which, as Graeber shows definitely, never
>> existed.
>
> No. Credit is a way of providing funds to entities that might not have
> them now but could well have them in the future. Loans to companies to
> fund working capital or major investments, to consumers to buy houses
> and cars, etc.
And that bears on the story of how money arises how? How is money "itself a form for suspending the unevenness of the time required in different branches of production" if not in comparison with barter?
Michael