Arjay, money cannot in the end be anything but a medium of exchange. But it's also gotta be a commodity-up to a point.

Those who rely on gambling a currencies future worth, gambling their worth against others' productivity etc deserve what they get.

As I've said before here- I can't wait not for the Carbon Trading market but the one that follows; the Carbon Trading Futures market, and whatever derivatves that follow. Get in on the ground floor.

money is a commodity because it has value
it should not be one....but it is because certain people get rich from it. it has value because it can be exchanged and has its own supply dynamic
re: the guy who said capitalism does not succeeed due to low wages - but input output blah
you are wrong entirely...
the main variable of input is the labour surplus
if it were not for that variable - all companies would not have any margin for profit - as all the other input variables become negligible over time - such as a new machine etc.
capitalism is ALL about the labour surplus

Arjay” Col you missed my point.My oil is money which lubricates the economic engine.”

Yes I did, in part. I apologise.

“Capitalists do look for the lowest wages.”

They look at the most cost effective, which is different. I do not see Boeing aircraft closing Seattle and moving everything to India, although they are skilling up parts of china for assembly work to secure the sale of aircraft to China, which is a common practice with aircraft supply.

The UK supplied the first batch of Harriers to USA then USA tooled up to manufacture the bulk of their demand under licence.

Pericles post has effectively summed up what “money” is.

Regarding “mortages were bundled up and sold to unsuspecting investors as safe investments.”

Two things

No investment is without risk.

Anyone buying a “dud” investment will invariably be more wary next time, hence the problems of refinancing lines of finance used to support mortgage providers.

Next thing will be less finance at higher rates, attracting fewer buyers into property and the high growth of the past few years will plateau and maybe even slip back. Such is the rhythm of finance. However, over the long term, the annual growth in house prices will remain at about 7%, pa compound, unless the state socialist governments find a stash of of 50,000 unused houses to flood onto the market.

As for being a commodity, of course it is, it has a value which one has to balance against its tendency to depreciate over time.

“Cash”, as the safest form of holding money, does not generate a strong return (basic risk profile) and will lose value relative to inflation if it is not converted into riskier mediums like property, shares, derivatives, futures, options etc.

You can't go past the inspired book if you want to find out about money or mammon. Money in itself is not evil but the love of it is. Often socialist fly around the world first class and then speak of the evils of capitalism. Socialist often get rich by capitalism and then preach to everyone else or even worse expect to live on welfare created by capitalism. A wise man realizes that naked he comes into the world and naked he will go out.

The mortgage crisis is no different from any other crisis in history which simply shows if we build our life upon anything or anyone other than Christ Jesus then that life will eventually crumble. It is more blessed to give than to receive. We who are so rich in this land that we need to be generous to the poor.

Well let's go a step further.Money in essence represents human potential.Even with all the gold,minerals and energy on the planet money means nothing without people making,servicing and consuming.

The real question is that how do we insure that this human potential is harnessed in the right direction so as to avert financial collapses such as our sub-prime debacles?The obivious problems both here and the US was the loaning of money to people who could ill afford to repay the debt and cope with rate rises.Either we educate people better at school about the market or we put restrictions on their ability to borrow cheap money for housing.

Today I see a very dubious trends emerging in regards global capitalists and our so called democratic Govts.In Aust we have such abundant energy and resources yet profit little from their exploitation.Natural gas is sold for 2C a litre to china and we pay 70C at the bowser.Now cheap energy underpins our living standards.The profits from our energy resources go to shareholders while most Aussies just manage to pay the bills and cannot save enough to enjoy the share market bonanza.

Now this is where Govt policy on taxing savings for the poor is seriously flawed.There is no incentive for people to save.

*The obivious problems both here and the US was the loaning of money to people who could ill afford to repay the debt and cope with rate rises*

Well the real problem was fraud. Banks let mortgage brokers flog
those loans and the mortgage brokers did not give a rats arse, as
long as they got their commissions. Those loans were then packaged
up and sold to investors as AAA rated. Investors around the world
have lost money, as geez whizz, they were not AAA after all, but
dud subprimes, sold to people who could not afford them.

I'm told that whoever rated them AAA can't be prosecuted for some
legal reason in the USA. If that is the case, then clearly the US
banking system can't be trusted, for those people should clearly be
in jail.

That is the problem right now. In NY, a major financial centre, nobody
trusts anybody. If nobody trusts anybody, nobody is going to lend
anyone money.