Complex World Money

In its 500 years of evolution, the capitalist mode of production has produced different forms of the most abstract incarnation of what the human species uses as the material carrier of general social value - of money. Social value in disguise permeates all internal models of social agents, from individuals via households and firms to state agencies. In a sense, we have arrived at a situation where the largest and most powerful social agents are still a handful of nation-states, of self-determined ‘global players’. Their respective national value system is partly made comparable by the existence of a military hegemon, the USA and its US Dollar. Less powerful nation-states are aligned along with the dominance of the US Dollar. To fulfil its manifold tasks, the global Dollar system has developed highly complex features, most of them incorporated in what today is called ‘international finance’. If the victory of a single nation-state (‘America first’) over a democratic global governance system fails, this will also imply a different sign-system for global social value. Not just different geographical location, but also other dimensions of diversity will have to be taken into account. In short, the complexity of a new form of world money will rise dramatically. By following the historical and logical evolution of money this contribution sketches some basic features of an upcoming complex global money.