Editorial
In this edition we look at monetary freedom, meaning, one supposes, the freedom of people to trade with one another using whatever means of exchange or money they choose. This can be a complex topic, but as these contributions make clear, any complexity is a result of unclarity and even cultivated mystique about the way we understand money.
In Monetary Freedom, Monetary Magic Richard C. B.Johnsson does an excellent job debunking the mythology surrounding our use of money. By his account, there is nothing, except our inadequate understanding, to prevent us enacting monetary freedom. The all-powerful 'authorities' reflect our own lack of monetary authorship. In Sign of our Time Toby Baxendale highlights an important aspect of monetary freedom, the concern of many that the modern banking system, insofar as it is unstable and given to booms and busts, is, again, a consequence of our inadequate understanding of the nature of bank deposits. Frances Zammit reiterates the importance of simplicity in our thinking about Legal Tender if we are not to, through unclear thinking or ignorance of facts, create a target that is not in fact there. She suggests that the monetary counterpart to associative economics already exists under English law. Prompted by reference to it by Frances Zammit, we have also included a piece by Christopher Houghton Budd on Virtual Finance, the essential point of which is that the more money is created outside the banking system the less does its issue rely on bank deposits.
In the same vein of 'be careful how one thinks', this month's Friends' Page features a lively discussion with John Mugge concerning the supposed commodity nature of land and how we are to understand its ownership. Accounting Corner completes the theme by wondering whether in the future money and banks might not anyway be made redundant by mobile phone technology..
