The Value of Money

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post addressing the question 'why does money matter?'. I hope I laid out a clear explanation of the role of money in our economy and how many mainstream economists misunderstand just what it is at its most fundamental level.

The basic insight is that money is credit or an IOU, and not a commodity nor a representation of a commodity (or commodities). So if money is credit, then what gives it value?

The metallists, those who believe money is like a commodity or a 'fiat' representation of commodities, believe money gets its value from that commodity or commodities. That is, they believe money gets its value from gold or in more modern times, from the bundles of goods a currency area produces.

I wondered about this question long ago, why is gold so valuable? I just didn't get why a mostly useless shiny metal would be so coveted by the Egyptians, Romans, or Europeans. Then I took a money and banking course in college that provided me with an explanation. Gold and other precious metals were used as money because they were easily molded into small, transportable coins. And because of its moldability, it could be divided into larger and smaller coins with varying values with markings to protect against counterfeiting. This mostly satisfied my curiosity. I though, 'oh, the people of Egypt (or wherever) were smart enough to figure out that this commodity, of all the commodities available to them, would serve best as money because of its inherent properties'.

Later in the course, however, I learned of an alternative approach to money that completely flips this view on its head. This is the Chartalist view that regards money as credit. To them, all money is an IOU or credit and anyone can then create money as long as someone is willing to accept it. Monies fall into a sort of hierarchy of acceptance with the most worthy creditors (or debtors) at the top and the worst at the bottom.

And it is here were we find the key to money's value. It isn't anything based on intrinsic worth of the commodity used to represent the IOU, it is rather the acceptability of the IOU. The most acceptable IOUs have more value!