期刊名称：Economic Sociology : the European Electronic Newsletter
印刷版ISSN：1871-3351
出版年度：2010
卷号：12
期号：1
出版社：Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
摘要：The financial crisis shattered many of the shibboleths of
orthodox economics and monetary policy. These included
the “efficient markets hypothesis” so often used
to justify the deregulation of the financial sector and the
monetarist belief that inflation targeting through interest
rate adjustments was the most effective and only necessary
tool for stabilizing the economy (Galbraith 2009).
Rather less, however, has been heard about what the
crisis means for our understanding of the production
and allocation of money. In a similar vein, discussions of
financial reform and regulation have mainly focused
upon institutions – banks, credit rating agencies, regulators
– rather than more fundamental questions about
the existing modes and rules around monetary production
and allocation. For example, few within the mainstream
are questioning the fact that, through a gradual
process of centralization, deregulation and advances in
ICT, today 97% of money in circulation is issued by
profit-making commercial organizations (banks) as interest-
bearing debt, while only 60 years ago, this was closer
to 50% with the remainder issued as coins and notes by
the state (Morrison 2006: 51-53). This despite the ‘unorthodox’
ventures in to quantitative easing by Central
Banks which have revealed that, under a fiat creditbased
monetary system, there is nothing to stop sovereign
states directly creating money whenever they really
need to.1 Neither has policy focused much upon how
reforms of the monetary system might meet the global
challenges of inequality and ecological sustainability.2
