Probabilistic political economy and endogenous money

Cockshott, W.P. and Cottrell, A. (2008) Probabilistic political economy and endogenous money. In: Probabilistic Political Economy Conference, London, UK, 14-17 Jul 2008, (Unpublished)

Abstract

Since the foundational work of Farjoun and Machover , important contributions to the field of probabilistic economy have been made. In this context one naturally has conservation of money as a postulate. However it is questionable whether a capitalist economy could ever work with entirely exogenous money, and it is interesting to see to what extent probabilistic arguments can illuminate the evolution of the type of endogenous money system that characterizes contemporary capitalism. We first argue, on probabilistic grounds, that a system with a strict conservation law on money was historically unsustainable. We then make the case that phenomena such as the formation of a rate of interest, periodic commercial crises, and the formation of a rentier class can be understood using the sort of reasoning pioneered by Farjoun and Machover

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Unpublished
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cockshott, Dr William
• Authors: Cockshott, W.P., and Cottrell, A.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HG Finance
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2008 The Authors
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the author