Money does matter, but is money matter? ...

We identify money with notes and coins – paper and metal – material. But in fact the coin or the note represents a promise to pay the amount desig-nated on the coin or note. The actual words are “THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR …” The note or coin is not ‘money', but rather legal tender for an amount. We can assume then that somewhere along the line we could actually present a note, perhaps to the Reserve Bank of NZ, and we could legally ask for the amount of money that the note has printed on it. And we would be out of luck! In that sense, money no longer represents anything material /perceptible.

In times passed notes and coins were legal tender for gold. The gold existed. It was held in reserve – by the Reserve Bank. Rather than use gold to pay our way it was easier to devise a portable legal tender for gold and use that instead. In time the link between the legal tender and the actual gold reserves were done away with because the reserves just sat there. Gold and the legal tender for it were separated. Money became abstract. There was no longer anything tangible or substantial underpinning it.

The financial system worldwide is now very unwell. It can serve us well to try and understand the patient. The illness has been there for a long time. In the last 18 months it has once again flared up as it has in the past. But this time we are called to not only alleviate the symptoms, but to also address the actual causes. Each one of us can contribute to this through our seeking to understand money and economics, and to find new ways of working with them.

(Kevin Coffey)