Monetary Theory: National and International.

• Author: Coleman, William Oliver

This book is surprising. The title suggests a general examination of monetary theory. Yet several topics usually thought of as central to "Monetary Theory" are absent. Money demand is never considered. Interest rates are almost invisible, apart from some paragraphs on "interest rate control" and "interest rate policy." Further, a large part of the book's material would normally be judged as "institutional" rather than "theoretical": for example, the considerable coverage of the Breton Woods Treaty, the Maastricht Treaty, Special Drawing Rights, the Delors Plan, and the European Monetary System.

Rather than being a treatise on monetary theory, it is best described as an examination of credit money, and the credit institutions (central banks included) which support credit money.

The method is also surprising. There are no equations. Hypothetical bank balance sheets are the principal non-verbal form of argument. Most distinctive of all is its language. Let me quote three examples;

Classical economists . . . clearly perceived that money is a form, a numerical container bound to get so closely connected to real goods as to be identified with them, and be thus transformed into income" [p. 13].

Money is essentially a numerical form with no axiological value [p. 15].

Being accustomed to the physicality of our relationship with the surrounding world, we are driven to an interpretation of reality implying its dimensional measurement [p. 26].

Clearly, in these sentences the reader finds themselves beyond the conventional...