[Book Sip] The First Topic of the ‘Jeonhwan’ Series is ‘Money’

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a point of connection with the book. We excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from the book. - Editor's note

This is the ‘Transition’ series presented by Econ, a publisher specializing in economics and business. It questions the modern global capitalist system and seeks the right alternatives to overcome upcoming economic, labor, social, political, and environmental issues and conflicts. The first topic is ‘money.’ In an era busy calculating the investment value of real estate, Bitcoin, NFTs, and more, it delves into the origin of money, the most fundamental form of currency.

What image comes to mind when you hear the word ‘wealth’? We still think of a luxurious house with a swimming pool, expensive imported cars, stacks of cash, and stocks of blue-chip companies as symbols of wealth. Even in today’s era where virtual currencies are actively traded, it is hard to shake off the fixed notion that money has a certain physical form. Can ‘virtual’ currency really be called money? When you swipe a card on a terminal or transfer deposits from one bank to another, does real money actually move? In fact, it does not. This confusion continues because remnants of mainstream economics still view money through the lens of commodity money theory, like a medium of barter.

Jeffrey Ingham passionately advocates the credit money theory, which sees money not as a thing but as ‘credit’ arising from relationships between people. The key here is to recognize money as an independent, active, and social entity. According to this theory, money is a social technology that induces employment and consumption stimulation and even a source of state power. From ancient Greece to the 2008 financial crisis, the history of debates between these two opposing theories suggests that money is not merely an economic issue or a matter of technological development from paper checks to blockchain, but a social and political issue.

Exploring the history, politics, and ideology of money leads us to the destination called the future of capitalism. Just as you need to understand the structure of an air conditioner to fix it when it breaks down, to prevent recurring financial crises, we must look into the principles of money and the banking system. The global climate crisis, pandemics, and wars have accelerated food shortages and inflation, and economic recessions continue. Moreover, the reckless issuance and collapse of virtual currencies, as recent events have shown, have caused credit bubbles that inevitably recall Jeffrey Ingham’s warning: “A chaotic society has chaotic money.”

Money proposes an alternative called ‘socialist money’ through the voice of sociology giant Max Weber. It may seem somewhat extreme and detached from reality. Historically, socialist systems have successfully established themselves only once. Nevertheless, to quell the crises humanity faces, considering a change in long-held ideologies might be the form we need to prepare for in the near future.

Money | Written by Jeffrey Ingham | Translated by Bang Hyuncheol and Byeon Jeho | Econ | 288 pages | 17,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.