Two theories of money. On the historical anthropology of the state-finance nexus

Abstract

The last decade of financial crisis, “financialization” and “quantitative easing” has been a feast of public learning about money and finance. Anthropology, history, and political economy rediscovered a “forgotten” history of money as fundamentally a public good rather than basically a private one. This article discusses the rediscovery of the two competing basic historical theories of money. It also notes that, after a turbulent decade of class and political polarization, including a worldwide pandemic, we also learned that under capitalism it just cannot be publicly conceded that money, if we want to, costs nothing, even though that is scientifically true. The article then reflects upon the current return of inflation and the turn toward “hard and dear money,” and what that might mean.