[OPE-L:5793] commodity money

Asfilho@aol.com
Wed, 3 Dec 1997 16:27:40 -0500 (EST)

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A couple of comments on Alejandro's recent post:

-On the 'anchor' and value as social labour time and money: I think you are
right, and the fact that you can assess value from both angles solves your
question about the anchor. One hour of social labour can be expressed in one
unit of money or in ten; this is broadly indifferent. As long as there is a
certain stability, such that meaningful relative prices can be obtained, the
monetary standard is irrelevant.

-Your point about the 'incompleteness' of many currencies in Latin America
(and in the Third World generally) is very important, but in another context.
I quite like Suzanne de Brunhoff's notion of a hierarchy of currencies, and a
hierarchy of forms of money. This is one of the most important, and
underdeveloped, aspects of Marxian monetary analysis, and is crucial for both
theory and policy analysis.

alfredo.