Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of exhibits -- List of boxes -- Introductory remarks -- 1 The theory of money: basic concepts, part I -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.1.1 On the nature, creation, and distribution of money -- 1.1.2 On money and prices -- 1.1.3 On inflation, growth, and financial and economic crises -- 1.2 Can we do without money? -- 1.2.1 Religious organizations -- 1.2.2 Firms: the invisible, visible, and vanishing hand -- 1.2.3 Post-scarcity societies -- 1.3 Money, markets, and value -- 1.3.1 Economic and financial instability -- 1.3.2 The Quantity Theory of Money -- 1.3.3 Capitalists, wage earners, and money -- 1.3.4 Are free markets really self-regulating? -- 1.3.5 Local and global interactions and their role in determining prices -- 1.3.6 Asset pricing in financial markets -- 1.3.7 Pricing goods and services in competitive markets -- 1.3.8 Value and the segmentation of the economy -- Notes -- References -- 2 The theory of money: basic concepts part II -- 2.1 Do we need a theory of money? -- 2.2 Operationalism and theories of money -- 2.3 The concept of stock-flow consistency -- 2.4 Money and macroeconomics -- 2.5 A framework for understanding theories of money -- 2.5.1 The nature of money -- 2.5.2 The creation of money -- 2.5.3 The distribution (or allocation) of money -- 2.5.4 How money is accepted, how it acquires value, and how its value changes over time -- Notes -- References -- 3 What is money? -- 3.1 Some brief remarks on money throughout history -- 3.1.1 Barter -- 3.1.2 Commodity money -- 3.1.3 Coins -- 3.1.4 The emergence of a banking system and credit -- 3.1.5 Paper money / banknotes -- 3.1.6 Paper money becomes fiat money -- 3.1.7 Bank deposits / credit money -- 3.2 Alternative forms of money -- 3.2.1 Near-money and the shadow banking system -- 3.2.2 Digital currencies