Monetary Economies Of Production

With its central focus on money and its link with the production sphere, this book explores how best to adapt the fundamental ideas of the circulationist perspective to achieve a better understanding of the financialisation of the productive apparatus

In mainstream economic theory money functions as an instrument for the circulation of commodities or for keeping a stock of liquid wealth. In neither case is it considered fundamental to the production of goods or the distribution of income. Augusto Graziani challenges traditional theories of monetary production, arguing that a modern economy based on credit cannot be understood without a focus on the administration of credit flows. He argues that market asset configuration depends not upon consumer preferences and available technologies but on how money and credit are managed. A strong exponent of the circulation theory of monetary production, Graziani presents an original and perhaps controversial argument that will stimulate debate on the topic.

This book challenges the mainstream paradigm, based on the inter-temporal optimisation of welfare by individual agents. It introduces a methodology for studying how it is institutions which create flows of income, expenditure and production together with stocks of assets and liabilities, thereby determining how whole economies evolve through time.

This book challenges the mainstream paradigm, based on the inter-temporal optimisation of welfare by individual agents. It introduces a methodology for studying how institutions create flows of income, expenditure and production together with stocks of assets and liabilities, thereby determining how whole economies evolve through time.

This volume examines the theory of monetary circulation and applies it to several modern issues including unemployment, inflation, distribution and economic policies. It will provide a valuable contribution to the field of monetary economics, and in particular, its development of non-neoclassical approaches to monetary economics.

'This is a timely book. Being on modern theories of money - essentially the study of traditions of endogenous money - it is a welcome contribution to current thinking on monetary policy. The modern central bank view on money is that the rate of interest should be manipulated by central banks to achieve an inflation target with the money supply being the "residual". Although money is in effect endogenous, there is no theory that explains its behaviour. Modern Theories of Money is a serious attempt to sharpen existing views on the issue and fill gaps in an admirable manner.' - Philip Arestis, University of Cambridge, UK and Levy Economics Institute, US This book unites diverse heterodox traditions in the study of endogenous money - which until now have been confined to their own academic quarters - and explores their similarities and differences from both sides of the Atlantic. Bringing together perspectives from post-Keynesians, Circuitists and the Dijon School, the book continues the tradition of Keynes's and Kalecki's analysis of a monetary production economy, emphasising the similarities between the various approaches, and expanding the analytical breadth of the theory of endogenous money. The authors open new avenues for monetary research in order to fuel a renewed interest in the nature and role of money in capitalist economies, which is, the authors argue, one of the most controversial, and therefore fascinating, areas of economics.

Rochon (economics and banking, Kalamazoo College) uses a horizontalist perspective to offer a historical overview of the post-Keynesian and circuit approaches to endogenous money, and provides an informed critique of the development of post-Keynesian economics. He argues that rather than emphasizing the early writings of Minsky, Kaldor, and Tobin in the 1950s and of Davidson and Rousseas later, post Keynesians ought to have followed the writings of Joan Robinson and Richard Kahn who offered better theories of credit-money.

The 2008 international crisis has revived the interest in Keynes’s theories and, in particular, on Minsky’s models of financial fragility. The core proposition of these theories is that money plays an essential role in modern economies, which is usually neglected in other approaches. This is Keynes’s liquidity preference theory, which is also the foundation for Minsky’s model, a theory that has been largely forgotten in recent years. This book looks at liquidity preference theory and its most important problems, showing how one should understand the role of money in modern monetary economies. It develops Keynes’s and Minsky’s financial view of money, relating it to the process of capital accumulation, the determination of effective demand and the theory of output, and employment as a whole. Building on the author’s significant body of work in the field, this book delves into a broad range of topics allowing the general reader to understand propositions that have been mistreated in the literature including Keynes and the concept of monetary production economy; uncertainty, expectations and money; short and long period; liquidity preference theory as a theory of asset pricing under uncertainty; asset prices and capital accumulation; Keynes’s version of the principle of effective demand; and the role of macroeconomic policy. It will be essential reading for all students and scholars of Post-Keynesian economics.