Back at the grindstone, cranking out lecture notes and papers. This paper is worth reading for it's different perspectives on money.
"This paper advances three fundamental propositions regarding money: (1) As R. W. Clower (1965) famously put it, money buys goods and goods buy money, but goods do not buy goods. (2) Money is always debt; it cannot be a commodity from the first proposition because, if it were, that would mean that a particular good is buying goods. (3) Default on debt is possible. These three propositions are used to build a theory of money that is linked to common themes in the heterodox literature on money."
Best,
Stephen
thanks for the post.
there is an interesting book by Thomas Greco on the same subject "the end of money" whose exposition seems clearer (at least to the lay person),
also, former belgian central banker, Bernard Lietaer, has theorised a lot about the problems of fiat money, and the need to develop complementary currencies.
http://www.lietaer.com
There seems to be enormous developments in this area.
Gearoid, cheers for the comment and the reference, I've added it to the pile of books to read.