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I don't think so, though I don't recall a specific critique of it.
The good source for this is the Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy.
The problem is what we think in trying to generalize Marx's theory of
money to contemporary institutional conditions. The tentative line of
argument advanced here does have a "chartalist" flavor.
Duncan
>Duncan, are you saying that Marx agreed with the chartalist view on money?
>
>"Duncan K. Foley" wrote:
>
>>
>> 1) It doesn't seem plausible that the market price of gold is
>> currently regulating the values of national currencies. (I think
>> Claus and Suzanne are not convinced of this.)
>>
>> 2) The form of money in contemporary capitalist economies is state
>> credit, the debt of the state. (I think Chai-on has some doubts about
>> this.)
>>
>> 3) This suggests that money is basically valued as the debt of the
>> state, which, in Marxist terms, is a "fictitious capital", the
>> capitalized value of that part of tax revenues devoted to paying
>> interest on the state debt. (The hard part here is to recognize that
>> currency and reserves, though they seem not to pay interest, actually
>> do pay interest in the form of their convenience, privacy, and
>> liquidity services. If, for example, the U.S. Treasury issued small
>> denomination interest-bearing debt ($20 treasury bills instead of
>> $10000 T-bills) the Fed could not circulate $20 Fed notes.)
>>
>> 4) This further suggests that the determinants of the value of money
>> in contemporary capitalism lie in the speculative valuation of the
>> government debt on asset markets. (Everybody I've tried this on has
>> doubts about this idea.) It requires one to believe that, for
>> example, workers, in bargaining over the money wage, are implicitly
>> valuing the state debt as well as their own labor-power.
>>
>> The only thing that makes me tentatively hang onto this implausible
>> chain of ideas is that I haven't heard any coherent alternative
>> theory...
>>
>> Duncan
>>
>> --
>> Duncan K. Foley
>> Leo Model Professor
>> Department of Economics
>> Graduate Faculty
>> New School University
>> 65 Fifth Avenue
>> New York, NY 10003
>> (212)-229-5906
>> messages: (212)-229-5717
>> fax: (212)-229-5724
>> e-mail: foleyd@cepa.newschool.edu
>> alternate: foleyd@newschool.edu
>> webpage: http://cepa.newschool.edu/~foleyd
>
>--
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>Chico, CA 95929
>
>Tel. 530-898-5321
>E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu
-- Duncan K. Foley Leo Model Professor Department of Economics Graduate Faculty New School University 65 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10003 (212)-229-5906 messages: (212)-229-5717 fax: (212)-229-5724 e-mail: foleyd@cepa.newschool.edu alternate: foleyd@newschool.edu webpage: http://cepa.newschool.edu/~foleyd
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