The Social Meaning of Money - Review

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Jan, 1999 by Frank C. Genovese

Vivian A. Zelizer in her The Social Meaning of Money (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997) provides a much fuller sociological view of money and its societal implications than most economics texts. It may be useful reading not only for students but also younger economists whose training stressed apparatus and form more than function.

A lack of consideration of real and important aspects of economic behavior, which can be perceived in the making and execution of policy, may be attributable to such lacunae. When OPEC sharply raised prices of fuels and prices of goods tied closely to their use, the Federal Reserve, feeling this was inflation to be combated, reacted by tightening with attendant negative employment and output effects. It seemed that those (men) who influenced monetary policy did not know what every housewife knew, that you had to take more, not less, money to the store and gas station when prices are rising.

In the comparative balance of opportunities and rewards for males and females, the role of money receives the stress it deserves in this work. If there is truth in the motto "In vino, veritas" it might be useful to add another, "In moneta, status."

There are some disappointments in the book. Although it sacrifices the past for the present in some regards, its coverage of the past has many lapses. There is little or nothing about numismatics, gold fever, and historical and contemporary religious matters such as distaste for graven images and the desirability and problems related to the use of the money supplied to the poor for birth control devices. Roman emperors rushed new coins into production and use because the coins carried their images. The Shah's picture on Iranian paper money was obliterated after his downfall (which he attributed to "taking the Mullahs off the payroll"). Also today South Africa may be missing a real marketing opportunity in not supplying coin collectors around the world with "Mandellarands" rather than just Krugerrands, which still conjure up visions of the now abandoned reprehensible policy of Apartheid.

It is to be hoped that these shortcomings are rectified in a future edition of a book that makes a good beginning in a worthwhile task.

FRANK C. GENOVESE by a united m