Money - L. Randell Wray

[Joe Leote]

This paper bears on our discussion of money as IOU in various forms, currency, reserves, bank deposits, etc.

 

Warren Mosler relies directly on this paper when describing money as "points on the scoreboard." 

 

http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_647.pdf

 

While all money represents mutual credit (society discounts natural events, creates money, manipulates the environment, and accepts money) I would not go so far as to view Fiat money used to pay taxes as a form of debt, since it is possible for individuals and firms to hold money indefinitely (as long as society recognizes its purchasing power) as a sum that is not encumbered by any promise to repay.

 

If the government issues money to pay for public goods and accepts it back as taxes, this does not make Fiat money an IOU, but it permits IOUs to be kept on the books in the Fiat money unit of account.

 

Joe 

[William Hummel]

Wray normally doesn't write such fluff as he did in paper 647.  It's nothing but an exercise in semantics.  Perhaps he needed to meet his quota at the Levy Institute and didn't have anything else available.

William.

[aldo alesii]

...or how to confuse and bamboozle the general public.  Interestingly, one of my first post in this blog was regarding exactly this topic.

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=b714d26053&e=baad94e07a

Aldo