Home > political-economy > Fiat currency: “No more money than a
theatre ticket is”   I am adding additional comments to my
reading of Weeks’ paper, “The theoretical and empirical
credibility of commodity money” (PDF). In my first reading, I
identified a problem with Weeks’ presentation of what he asserts
is empirical evidence supporting a link between commodity-money
and price. In my second reading I explained how Weeks’ real
contribution to my understanding is his analysis of the
neoclassical theory of money. In this reading, I am trying,
based on Weeks’ argument to define exactly what the dollar and
other fiat currencies are; and their relation both to commodity
money and the circulation of commodities.  The problem posed by
most Marxist attempts to analyze fiat currency is that state
issued fiat is treated as if it is money when it is not; and
prices denominated in a fiat currency are treated as if these
prices express the value of commodities, which they do not. For
years now Marxists have been asking if