Progressives Have Corrupted Not Only Money, But Its History As Well

The credit theory of money says that money is simply a unit for measuring debt.

The MMT debate is about the nature of money itself, and these theories about the origin of money are central to understanding this alternative way of thinking that's gaining popularity on the progressive left.

When one looks, it's clear that both the theory and history presented as evidence for the state and credit theories of money don't hold up, especially when compared to the Austrian alternative.

The important insight here is that money gets its value as a money from what it's able to buy and that it must have originated out of a good or commodity produced for some other purpose that was then found to be particularly saleable.

Still, as Graeber admits, the precise moment when money first appeared happened sometime before the historical record began in Mesopotamia 5,500 years ago, but that doesn't stop him from citing the earliest civilization as evidence for the state and credit theories of money.

About six thousand years later, when the curtain of history was lifted, ancient Sumer, as described by Graeber, was already a rather advanced money economy.

So not only was silver already an internationally recognized money, but the earliest recorded states were already corrupting domestic money markets. 

https://mises.org/wire/progressives-have-corrupted-not-only-money-its-history-well