~ IOTORCHTFSOFMEPDIWOZ-TTCHNAT-ANW ~ In Order To Obtain Refinancing Countries Have To Follow Some Orthodox Free-Market Economic Policy Designed In Washington Or Zurich – That Their Citizens Had Never Agreed To – And Never Would

~ IWABDTITCADC-ATAIT-WGE-THNCOTCPA ~ It Was A Bit Dishonest To Insist That Countries Adopt Democratic Constitutions – And Then Also Insists That – Whoever Gets Elected – They Have No Control Over Their Country Policies Anyway

~ FTOY-TSBRAPHLTTFOCBCAD-OAB-IP-DP-A-R-R-TSOS-TSOV-TSODCIS ~ For Thousands Of Years – The Struggle Between Rich And Poor Has Largely Taken The Form Of Conflicts Between Creditors And Debtors – Of Arguments About – Interest Payment – Debt Peonage – Amnesty – Repossession – Restitution – The Sequestering Of Sheep – The Seizing Of Vineyards – The Selling Of Debtors’ Children Into Slavery

~ FTLFTY-WRR-PIHB-WTRDOTDR-CTDARTL ~ For The Last Five Thousand Years – With Remarkable Regularity – Popular Insurrections Have Begun – With The Ritual Destruction Of The Debt Records – Cancel The Debts And Redistribute The Land

~ AAWROWTWHPACRISOBVORAW ~ Arguments About Who Really Owes What To Whom Have Played A Central Role In Shaping Our Basic Vocabulary Of Right And Wrong

~ TNNAVM-A-TWTOFOM ~ There’s Nothing New About Virtual Money – Actually – This Was The Original Form Of Money

~ ITCSV-TSATM-TAAEADOP-HRR-H-TWBTAHABI ~ In That Common Sense View – The State And The Market – Tower Above All Else As Diametrically Opposed Principles – Historical Reality Reveals – However – They Were Born Together And Have Always Been Intertwined

~ NOIIMTMDP-MADAOTSAETST ~ Not Only Is It Money That Makes Debt Possible – Money And Debt Appear On The Scene At Exactly The Same Time

~ SOTVFWDTHCDTUAMTRCAD ~ Some Of The Very First Written Documents That Have Come Down To Us Are Mesopotamian Tablets Recording Credits And Debits

~ TSOMFEABWAFWOB-TPIWTLTFITAS-WWNCVMCF ~ The Story Of Money For Economists Always Begins With A Fantasy World Of Barter – The Problem Is Where To Locate This Fantasy In Time And Space – What We Now Call Virtual Money Came First

~ B-ATBLAKOABOTUOCOPM-IHMBWPWAUTCTDWFOROATHNATC ~ Barter – Appears To Be Largely A Kind Of Accidental Byproduct Of The Use Of Coinage Or Paper Money – It Has Mainly Been What People Who Are Used To Cash Transactions Do When For One Reason Or Another They Have No Access To Currency

~ A-TFRWF-’F’-IAKHL-LM-’RTM’ ~ Amargi – The First Recorded Word For – “Freedom” – In Any Known Human Language – Literally Means – “Return To Mother”

~ SCM-MRS-NCCWTO-AL-IALTFWWRT ~ States Created Markets – Markets Require States – Neither Could Continue Without The Other – At Least – In Anything Like The Forms We Would Recognize Today

~ C-MWNITOTIOBBN-SNWHNRTEIBITFP ~ Clearly – Money Was Not Invented To Overcome The Inconveniences Of Barter Between Neighbors – Since Neighbors Would Have No Reason To Engage In Barter In The First Place

~ TSASA-CTTS-AT-DTEFITK-OTPOOTCB-NEF-IOTGTHOTC-MFSWT-PSWTTW-MABIEAASE ~ To Support A Standing Army – Coins To The Soldiers – And Then – Demands That Every Family In The Kingdom – Obliged To Pay One Of Those Coins Back – Now Every Family – In Order To Get Their Hands On The Coins – Must Find Some Way To – Provide Soldiers With Things They Want – Markets Are Brought Into Existence As A Side Effect

~ DTDLA-TTEOSAMASO-THRITETOITC-SSTATBWM ~ Despite The Dogged Liberal Assumption – That The Existence Of States And Markets Are Somehow Opposed – The Historical Record Implies That Exactly The Opposite Is The Case – Stateless Societies Tend Also To Be Without Markets

~ WIEO-OTLFTY-MHBE-ACOTS ~ Whatever Its Earliest Origins – Of The Last Four Thousand Years – Money Has Been Effectively – A Creature Of The State

~ MIC-ICBBIBBPCA-TSMETAADTLT ~ Money Is Credit – It Can Be Brought Into Being By Private Contractual Agreements – The State Merely Enforces The Agreement And Dictates The Legal Terms

~ AOTISTGBTSSOO-’SC’-TESAO-TNORKEWOBW-OWWSBBBTDODAOTOM-WWDFPBBTDOODAOAE ~ All Of This Is Said To Go Back To Some Sort Of Original – “Social Contract” – That Everyone Somehow Agreed On – Though No One Really Knows Exactly When Or By Whom – Or Why We Should Be Bound By The Decisions Of Distant Ancestors On This One Matter – When We Don’t Feel Particularly Bound By The Decisions Of Our Distant Ancestors On Anything Else

~ TBBSAM-BGAM-INITTHC ~ The Battle Between State And Market – Between Governments And Merchants – Is Not Inherent To The Human Condition

~ ‘F’-CTRAATRFTEOD ~“Freedom” – Came To Refer Above All To Release From The Effects Of Debt

~ AHRABOSVOR-IS-TDRIATROAM-BDIWHWSBHNYBR ~ All Human Relations Are Based On Some Variation On Reciprocity – If So – Then Debt Really Is At The Root Of All Morality – Because Debt Is What Happens When Some Balance Has Not Yet Been Restored

~ WEA-C-WOCF ~ We Are All – Communists – With Our Closest Friends

~ NRMOWWWTLIAPWNDLAOA ~ No Reasonable Man Or Woman Would Want To Live In A Place Where Neighbors Don’t Look After One Another

~ GASCADFCABOSF:TCBS ~ Gold And Silver Coins Are Distinguished From Credit Arrangements By One Spectacular Feature: They Can Be Stolen

~ MCSC ~ Military-Coinage-Slavery Complex

~ MATHFE-ITNEAL-AASEOGAS ~ Markets Appear To Have First Emerge – In The Near East At Least – As A Side Effect Of Government Administrative Systems

~ WUTATCAMATST-B-IMWTCREWBCAO-WMAWOEGTTMOM-CIFAFTAOUMTGMM-TEWTDTIBESKOFODFRM ~ We’re Use To Assuming That Capitalism And Markets Are The Same Thing – But – In Many Ways They Could Equally Well Be Conceived As Opposites – While Markets Are Ways Of Exchanging Goods Through The Medium Of Money – Capitalism Is First And Foremost The Art Of Using Money To Get More Money – The Easiest Way To Do This Is By Establishing Some Kind Of Formal Or De Facto Monopoly

~ B-1520A1650-UTOGASFMAPWTATAAPISTS-VLOTGASLVLIE-MOTGEUITII-ATOMOTSBWUSOTC-EHNPMOATAWTB-SIWFTPIS-F-S-S-S-A-OI ~ Between – 1520 and 1640 – Untold Tons Of Gold And Silver From Mexico And Peru Were Transported Across The Atlantic And Pacific In Spanish Treasure Ships – Very Little Of That Gold And Silver Lingered Very Long In Europe – Most Of The Gold Ended Up In Temples In India – And The Overwhelming Majority Of The Silver Bullion Was Ultimately Shipped Off To China – Europe Had Never Produced Much Of Anything That Asians Wanted To Buy – So It Was Forced To Pay In Specie For – Silks – Spices – Steel – And – Other Imports

~ TEYOEEWLATGAET-EL-O-TNSOGASWWTPFT ~ The Early Years Of European Expansion Were Largely Attempts To Gain Access Either To – Eastern Luxuries – Or – To New Sources Of Gold And Silver With Which To Pay For Them

~ THTBPIM-EB-IC-CTBTMAIHITMA-BMOVFOVCM-T-PN-O-STKTOWOWTW ~ Taxes Had To Be Paid In Metal – Everyday Business – In Contrast – Continued To Be Transacted Much As It Had In The Middle Ages – By Means Of Various Forms Of Virtual Credit Money – Tallies – Promissory Notes – Or – Simply The Keeping Track Of Who Owed What To Whom

~ CC-WELBS-O-WP-R-T-A-T-T-L-B-P-A-O-S-AA-GASWUBTGTPAAPS ~ Cold Cash – Was Employed Largely Between Strangers – Or – When Paying – Rents – Tithes – And – Taxes – To – Landlords – Bailiffs – Priests – And – Other – Superiors – Above All – Gold And Silver Were Used By The Government To Purchase Arms And Pay Soldiers

~ TGCTMWENTP ~ The Great Conversation That Many Were Expecting Never Took Place

~ WCTWEBWCNLIAATWBEW ~ We Cling To What Exists Because We Can No Longer Imagine An Alternative That Wouldn’t Be Even Worse

~ ASTRTWTNCOBHIPBW ~ Any System That Reduces The World To Numbers Can Only Be Held In Place By Weapons

~ ITLSOT-JANOHTRTTUOTV-NOHTRTTUWWTO ~ In The Largest Scheme Of Things – Just As No One Has The Right To Tell Us Our True Value – No One Has The Right To Tell Us What We Truly Owe