From: Fred Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Sun Nov 14 2004 - 10:14:46 EST
On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > >> You also asked: Is there any sense in which money is a commodity > >> today? I tried an affirmative answer with my hypothesis of a > >> composite commodity theory of money. But you were dismissive of it, > >> unfairly I of course think! > > > >I wasn't dismissive of your idea. I said that I didn't see how a > >composite commodity could function as the measure of value, because I > >don't see how it is possible to define the BASIC UNIT of such a composite > >commodity, and thus how to determine the quantity of labor-time that is > >contained in a unit of the money commodity, which is what is necessary in > >order to function as the measure of value (and to determine the MELT). > >If you could explain this point to me, then I would be happy to consider > >further. > > > > > >Comradely, > >Fred > > Dear Fred, > I fear that I am not getting the point; and if so I apologize. I am > unable to see the point that you are making. > > If Greenspan roughly attempts to keep $1000 equal to x barrels of > oil, y grams of gold and z bushels of grain, then $1000 simply > represents the labor time represented by x barrels of oil, y grams of > gold, and z bushels of grain. > Greenspan follows sensitive commodity prices; in doing so, he may be > constructing a loose composite commodity money. For example, he again > raised rates despite continued depression in marginal efficiency of > capital and build up of idle cash reserves only because sensitive > commodity prices are in fact rising. The economy is not getting > stronger; the dollar is depreciating too sharply against that basket > of commodities. Rakesh, with Marx's commodity money (e.g. gold), the MELT is determined by the quantity of gold produced in one hour (e.g. 0.5 shillings). In your suggested bundle-of-commodities money, HOW WOULD THE MELT BE DETERMINED? This is what I don't see. Maybe a weighted average of the quantity of oil and gold and grain produced in one hour? But how obtain this weighted average, since one cannot add together oil and gold and grain? Comradely, Fred
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