Chapter 3: Money

1. Chapter 3: Money Chapter Objectives • Define money. • Describe the work or economic functions that money performs. • Define barter and explain why it is economically inefficient. • Explain why some forms of commodity money are better than others. • Explain why representative, credit, and fiat money are supplanted commodity money. • Define the money supply and explain how and why it is measured.

2. Even Monkeys Understand Money • Literally! • http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/magazine/05FREAK.html?pagewanted=all

3. This is money too! • http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/ • http://www.myfoxla.com/story/22650044/criminals-use-tide-detergent-in-place-of-cash

4. Requires satisfaction of the double coincidence of wants • Party one must have what party two desires, and vice versa • Pricing problems • The number of prices of goods equals the number of possible pairs

5. Medium of Exchange Store of Value Unit of account Standard of Deferred Compensation • Facilitates trade • Fulfills double coincidence of wants • Stores purchasing power over time • Facilitates price determination • Can be used to denominate a debt

6. 2. Better to Have Had Money and Lost It Than to Have Never Had Money at All • Commodity money: Forms of money that have intrinsic value as a commodity • For example, cigarettes offer: • Ease of authentication • Uniformity • Divisibility • Durability • Portability • Elasticity of supply

7. The best medium of exchange combines: Ease of authentication Uniformity Divisibility Durability Portability Elasticity of supply Money must be scarce, but it need not be rare

8. Key Takeaways The best medium of exchange combines ease of authentication, uniformity, divisibility, durability, portability, and elasticity of supply. Gold is not necessarily the best type of money because its supply is relatively inelastic. Being declared a legal tender may help a medium of exchange to circulate but simply knowing that a thing is readily accepted in exchange can work just as well.

9. 4. Commodity and Credit Monies Table 3.1 - A Taxonomy of Money

10. 4. Commodity and Credit Monies • Gold’s monetary life had been extended by the invention and widespread use of credit money • Including banknotes and deposits • Credit money was born when the goldsmiths, now protobankers, discovered that they could issue notes to a greater value than the gold they had on physical deposit

11. 4. Commodity and Credit Monies • Types of Deposits: • Demand deposit account - Pays no or relatively low interest, but funds can be withdrawn at any time via teller during banking hours • Certificates of deposit - Pay relatively high interest but either cannot be withdrawn at all before a pre-specified date or can be withdrawn only if the depositor suffers a penalty that wipes out much of the interest earned • Between those two extremes have emerged a variety of hybrids

12. 4. Commodity and Credit Monies Variety of Hybrids:

13. Different Measures of Money Supply used by the Federal Reserve M0 M1 M2 • Cash in circulation • MB - Bank reserves • M0 + • Demand deposits • Traveler’s checks • M1 + • Savings deposits • MM mutual funds M3 includes M2 as well as institutional time deposits, money market mutual fund shares, repurchase agreements, and Eurodollars, but its publication was discontinued by the Fed in