Table Of Content

This is blank right hand page This is blank left hand page i Money, Finance, Reality, Morality A New Way to Address Old Problems By Edward Hadas [This is where the number count starts, Roman i, but this page is not numbered. Right hand page] ii Money, Finance, Reality, Morality: A New Way to Address Old Problems By Edward Hadas This book first published 2022 Ethics International Press Ltd, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2022 by Edward Hadas All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Print Book ISBN: 978-1-80441-026-4 eBook ISBN: 978-1-80441-027-1 [This is the second page in the number count Roman ii, but this page is not numbered. Left hand page] iii Blank Right hand page [This is the third page in the number count Roman iii, but this page is not numbered.] iv Blank Left hand page [This is the fourth page in the number count Roman iv, but this page is not numbered.] v Contents Preface ................................................................................................................ xv Chapter 1. The problem with money and finance ....................................... 1 In praise of the modern economy ..................................................................... 1 The financial exception ....................................................................................... 5 Why the failure is surprising, and what that means ...................................... 8 Slaves to bad old ideas ..................................................................................... 11 Money is a scarce commodity ................................................................ 12 Money is individualistic .......................................................................... 16 Money tells the exact truth about values .............................................. 19 Chapter 2. Money ............................................................................................. 26 1. Money as a symbol ........................................................................................ 28 2. The Great Exchange ...................................................................................... 42 A definition ............................................................................................... 43 Exchange ................................................................................................... 45 Labour ........................................................................................................ 46 Consumption ............................................................................................ 49 Gift .............................................................................................................. 50 The humanised world ............................................................................. 52 Money and the Great Exchange (preview) ........................................... 54 3. Introduction to money .................................................................................. 67 What money is .......................................................................................... 67 The genius of monetary allocation (allocation itself) .......................... 69 The genius of monetary allocation (balance) ........................................ 73 The genius of monetary allocation (flexibility) .................................... 75 Four complications ................................................................................... 78 Theories of steady monetary value ........................................................ 84 What money-numbers do mean ............................................................. 89 Adding information to money ............................................................... 93 4. The Triptych ................................................................................................... 95 The left section (non-economic money) ................................................ 98 The middle section ................................................................................. 102 The right section (economy without money) ..................................... 104 vi 5. Money and economic reality ...................................................................... 111 6. What gives money its value ....................................................................... 116 7. The shifting Central Monetary Ratio ........................................................ 121 The Central Monetary Ratio .................................................................. 121 Local problems ........................................................................................ 126 Border problems in one currency ......................................................... 128 Border problems across currencies ...................................................... 130 Money creation problem ....................................................................... 132 Denominator problems .......................................................................... 135 8. Managing the supply of money ................................................................ 138 When is active control of the money-supply helpful? ....................... 138 How can the money-supply be controlled? ........................................ 141 How large should monetary adjustments be? .................................... 143 9. Money is not really a store of value .......................................................... 144 10. Money is not intertemporal credit .......................................................... 152 Chapter 3. Introduction to finance .............................................................. 161 1. Finance as a symbol..................................................................................... 162 2. Economic finance ......................................................................................... 170 Yoking ...................................................................................................... 173 Giving ....................................................................................................... 174 Pooling ..................................................................................................... 175 Taxing (governmental allocation) ........................................................ 176 Changing ................................................................................................. 178 Finance ..................................................................................................... 179 3. Post-aristocratic finance .............................................................................. 180 Traditional land rents ............................................................................ 181 Modern land rents .................................................................................. 183 Government debt .................................................................................... 184 Excessive business income .................................................................... 187 Consumer lending .................................................................................. 187 Finance itself............................................................................................ 188 4. Six general observations on finance .......................................................... 188 5. Two types of financial arrangement ......................................................... 192 Debt .......................................................................................................... 193 vii Equities .................................................................................................... 196 6. Ten economic uses of finance .................................................................... 199 1. Helpful financial selection ................................................................ 199 2. Helpful financial unification ............................................................. 201 3. Helpful financial smoothing ............................................................. 202 4. Doubtful financial principle of corporate organisation ................ 203 5. Doubtful financial intertemporal transfers ..................................... 204 6. Doubtful streams of financial income ............................................. 205 7. Doubtful promises ............................................................................. 206 8. Bad financial social power ................................................................ 207 9. Bad financial activity in companies ................................................. 208 10. Bad financial speculation ................................................................ 208 7. Topics in finance and society ..................................................................... 209 Sharp judgements, duller reality .......................................................... 209 Financialisation ....................................................................................... 212 Implications of the precisionist-consistency fallacy .......................... 215 8. Topics in financial morality ....................................................................... 217 The inherent justice of non-aristocratic finance ................................. 218 The concentration of financial power .................................................. 221 Some moral questions ............................................................................ 222 Dividing gain and pain and keeping promises .................................. 225 The value of forgiveness ....................................................................... 226 9. Six confusing words .................................................................................... 227 1. Finance ................................................................................................. 228 2. Savings ................................................................................................. 231 3. Bank ..................................................................................................... 234 4. Investments ......................................................................................... 236 5. Capital .................................................................................................. 238 6. Government debt ............................................................................... 243 10. Four conceptual confusions ..................................................................... 247 1. Compounding returns ....................................................................... 247 2. Pension and government debts ........................................................ 249 3. Two types of prices ............................................................................ 252 4. The mystique of interest rates .......................................................... 255