Why is Bitcoin not Money? A Post-Keynesian view

Bitcoin got increasing popularity and was considered by the public as a great investment due to huge overvaluation in 2017. In parallel, economists and high-level technicians started to advocate the use of bitcoin and other cryptographic currencies as an alternative to national currencies. However, bitcoin is far from being considered as money, so it is hard for a monetary and payment system to emerge based on these technologies. This paper, apart from briefly presenting the Bitcoin System, shows why bitcoin is not money in the light of the Keynesian theory. We use Keynesian essential properties of Money and Modern Money Theory to define money, and to show that cryptographic currencies are not money. We then go back to Keynes' theory of portfolio choice, established in Chapter 17 of the General Theory, to show what bitcoin really is: at most, bitcoin is a perfect virtual commodity, a virtual liquid speculative asset.

Narrative Economics and Behavioral Economics: contributions to the behavioral insights on post-Keynesian theory

ABSTRACT The objective of this review is to discuss the formation of knowledge proposed by Keynes on his Treatise on Probability, and the economic agents’ behavior in an uncertainty scenario presented on his General Theory, by the Narrative Economics’ and Behavioral Economics perspectives. The hypothesis that will be analyzed is that in a keynesian uncertainty scenario, economic agents tend to act according to their context (social, geographic, historic, cultural) spreading narratives by which they identify themselves and orient decisions that cause sensible movements on the economic aggregates. Revisiting the literature, we could conclude that by bringing together the behavioral economy and the narrative economy theory, we could, from the Keynes’ insights on his writings, perceive strong empirical evidence that can be analytically important on the assessment of the economic fluctuations.

The slowing Growth of Global Economy: Keynesian and Neo-Classical Interpretations

The article outlines the reasons for the slowing growth of global economy in the last 2 years and analyzes the views of IMF and UNCTAD experts on this subject. The author concludes that the new US protection policy cannot be considered the main reason of the slowdown: the growth of US import tariffs for China and Europe does impede the economic growth in those regions, but it stimulates growth in the US and other countries whose corporations compete with Chinese producers in the US market. The author argues that the Keynesian theory gives a better explanation to the slower growth as it is attributed to lack of demand and productive investment. The article shows that the Keynesian theory needs to be corrected as well, because the liberalization of global economy distorts the connection between money demand, generated by incomes in various countries, and growth of their economies: the demand can be covered by goods produced abroad, while investment can be allocated for foreign projects. Thus, promotion of economic activity should utilize not only the traditional Keynesian recipes of financial and credit influence, but also the national customs and currency regulation, as well as respective cross border capital migration restrictions.

Selling debt: Interrogating the moral claims of the financial elites in Central Asia

This article critically examines how banks and microfinance companies morally construed and evaluated their lending practices and income in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Banks occupy a powerful position in a monetary economy, because they do not merely create money ‘out of thin air’, but can charge for it, that is, interest. In doing so, they obtain unearned income and extract wealth. The article examines how banks and microfinance companies used myths, ideals, discourses, norms and emotions to justify and de-politicise their unequal power, unearned income and damaging effects. The study draws on the moral economy perspective and the post-Keynesian theory of money to understand financial institutions’ moral justifications and rationalisations of their position and power. This article contributes to a wider literature on neoliberalism and morality in post-socialist economies.

Liquidity preference in a world of endogenous money: A short-note.

We argue that even in the case that banks are able to maintain the interest rate at a level that they want (the most “radical” version of the theory of endogenous money), liquidity preference continues to constitute a key element when determining the real equilibrium of the economy. In a framework of endogenous money, the Keynesian theory of liquidity preference still constitutes a theory that determines level of income. Financial markets matter, and the Kaldorian idea that liquidity preference “ceases to be of any importance” can only be defended under a set of very restrictive assumptions.