What is (not) money? Medium of exchange [not equal to] means of payment.: An article from: American Economist

This digital document is an article from American Economist, published by Omicron Delta Epsilon on September 22, 2007. The length of the article is 2326 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: This note attempts to provide a formulaic definition of money and discuss the distinction between "medium of exchange" and "means of payment." The former refers to the set of assets in an economy that people regularly exchange for goods and services (a concept of "what"), while the latter is a method that facilitates delivery of money from one to another (a notion of "how"). It suggests that money should be exclusively defined as "medium of exchange," rather than "means of payment." With such a distinction established, one can uniformly explain why currency, demand deposits and smart cards are money (because they are a medium of exchange), and why checks, money orders, or debit and credit cards are not money (because they are only a means of payment but not a medium of exchange).

Citation Details
Title: What is (not) money? Medium of exchange [not equal to] means of payment.
Author: Bill Z. Yang
Publication:American Economist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2007
Publisher: Omicron Delta Epsilon
Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Page: 101(4)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning