June 9, 2009
More on the Fischer Black Model
June 9, 2009
The Purpose of the Public Health Insurance Plan
June 8, 2009
Justin Fox, Fischer Black, Tyler Cowen
June 8, 2009
Limits to Progress?
June 8, 2009
Behaviorial Geneticists versus Policy Implications
June 7, 2009
Isn't That Just an Asian Effect?
June 7, 2009
Forecasting
June 6, 2009
On Being Certain
June 6, 2009
Obama on How Markets Reduce Racial Discrimination
I think the two links go to the same site
atlas shrugged had an opinion on the origin of money
Ryan is right. It leads to the same site.
Starting with a causalaty chain, the goal is to minimize scarcity of goods for the group, then the mere convenience of cash as a technology is not sufficient.
The argument must lead to the movement and storage of inventory over time such that most people get most goods most of the time.
Perhaps cash was such an advance over barter, that the coagulation of the village market and warehouse was a surprising side effect.
More likely a version of Arnold's, IMHO. The warehousing of goods in the village probably preceded cash, and was achieved more along the lines of militarism. Cash was originally a badge of authority taken from the village leader(s)' decorative royal jewels. The lending out of part of the crown jewels assigned authority to the holder, who could forage and rely on the inventory support of the leading clan.
Even George Selgin's Good Money would not have been a spontaneous egalitarian construct, but would have an enforcer network, leading to increasing wealth and incomplete markets.
You get the spanning tree model of commerce, the transactions leading to larger holdings of goods in the village to maintain longer outlook for the village holders of the king's ransom. In this hierarchical model, the aggregate inventory of goods is calculated with the Hayek minimum of effort.