The Creators of Inside Money ― A New Monetary Theory

The book explores the endogenous creators of inside money, the commercial banks, and their key role in igniting the 2007-8 monetary crisis and the aftermath of the Great Recession. This is an area of study overlooked by the traditional approach in the form of neo-classical analysis, a body of theory based on a barter system of exchange. Money has evolved from a construct of barter to become a medium of exchange based on fiat money and loan creation by the banking system, underpinned by legal tender, and therefore, a creature of law. It is not a phenomenon exogenously controlled by the monetary authorities and simply assumed to be a “veil” over the real economy, which just determines the absolute price level.

This monograph, in the eyes of the student, represents critical thinking and the realization of a more precise formulation of the endogenous money supply with various features systematically added in an attempt to derive a fully dynamic model of the monetary system, which will be straightforward to visualize and contrast with the benchmark approach.

D. Gareth Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Hertfordshire where he has been since 1990. He received a BA (Hons.) degree in Social Sciences from the Central London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and a MSc degree in Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London, alongside a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from St. Mary’s College, Institute of Education, University of London. Finally, he received a PhD in the econometric modelling of real investment from the University of Hertfordshire. Prior to joining the Hertfordshire Business School, he was a schoolteacher and the Head of Economics at Longdean School, Hemel Hempstead. His research interests include econometrics and monetary and health economics. He is the author of a number of research articles and has presented at numerous conferences. In 2010, he was highly commended for teaching excellence as Tutor of the Year by the University of Hertfordshire.