HALF-COCKED

Magpie [I love these webnames] expresses an interest in having me say something about money.  There was a time in my life when I gave a lot of thought to the subject, prompted by Marx's chapter on money, among other things, and actually read some modern economics books on the subject [which were no help at all, I am afraid.]  I finally sat down and started, very carefully and slowly, to try to think the subject through on paper, writing in longhand [which is how I used to write books, way back then.]   I wrote about 3000 words, complete with symbols and some linear algebra, trying to be absolutely clear on the subject.  This morning, I found what I had written in my file drawer of unpublished lectures, essays, and private writings, and reread it.  It ends abruptly just as I am getting to the hard part, which is another way of saying that I did not see my way clear through the subject then, and certainly do not now.  So I am afraid I cannot satisfy Magpie's quite legitimate interest.  It is indeed a very deep and important subject, and one that lies at the heart of the mystification of commodity production.