ABSTRACT
Few institutions are as important to human welfare as that of money. Fewer still are as grossly misunderstood. Our knowledge and understanding of what money is, where it comes from, and what it does, is littered with pervasive myths. 2 Among these myths are: (i) that money is a creature of the market born out of the necessity to facilitate barter; (ii) that money is an object, usually of some intrinsic value (derived from precious metals) that is easily transportable and divisible; and (iii) that in and of itself, money has little economic significance (it is ‘neutral’), thus serving only to simplify transactions but leaving employment, consumption, and investment decisions unaffected.
