Paul C
>>Is it not the existence of an obligation to pay taxes in Dollars that enforces
>>the currency of the greenback, rather then their being backed by a power
to tax
>>in the sense of the tax raising power substituting for reserves.
> Duncan F
>I'm not sure I see any inconsistency in the two alternatives you describe.
>My point is that currency issued by the state is technically a
>tax-anticipation certificate. The fact that it has value arises from its
>power to extinguish a tax debt to the state, just as the value of a bond
>certificate or a stock certificate arises from its power to secure a stream
>of revenue. In this sense state credit money has a "fundamental" value and
>is not just a speculative bubble. I'd like to push the analogy further and
>argue that the process by which the value of the state credit money is
>determined is a speculative process analogous to that by which bond and
>stock certificates are valued.
>
Paul C
In that case I misunderstood you, your understanding of it is essentially
the same as mine, only phrased slightly differently.
Paul Cockshott
wpc@cs.strath.ac.uk
http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/CS/Biog/wpc/index.html