What is money? No—not the hopes, aspirations and goals we
attribute to money. What is money itself, the physical property?
Noting it’s a question even Alan Greenspan once struggled to
answer, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, a professor at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City, explained it to attendees at the 2102 FPA
Retreat in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Sunday, linking it to the
financial distress in which Europe currently finds itself. “It’s
always an interesting and important topic,” she began in her
session, “Money is No Object: Accounting for Deficits, Taxes &
Trust in the 21st Century.” “Money is a peculiar institution and
no one really knows what to do with it, not even many leading
economists. The so-called “textbook theory of money,” she said,
is best summed up by, “one of your own, Dick Wagner, who said,
‘money is the most powerful secular force on the planet, yet
many view it with mystery and even mysticism.’ But at the same
time, Adam Smith once said it’s human nature to ‘truck, barter
and exchange.’” Money el