This book provides a new way of understanding modern money and markets by stressing their self-fulfilling/self-destructive properties as institutions from evolutionary perspectives. In contrast to an unrealistic view of the neoclassical general equilibrium theory that models the price mechanism of a "concentrated market" without using money, presented here is an alternative theory of markets on how a realistic "dispersive market" using a stock of money and inventory as buffers can work as a multilayered price-quantitative adjustment system. The central features of modern sovereign moneys seen in inconvertible IOUs of central banknotes can be depicted as "The Emperor's New Clothes" that correspond to the U.S. dollar and the Euro void of their own value. The image captures such characteristics of national currencies as "self-fulfilling ideas" by the inertia of conventions in the past and expectations of an uncertain future. Both ideas normally make money more acceptable and circulative so that its value can become more stable unless expectations for the future turn very pessimistic. The same logic also applies to such other currencies as Bitcoin and community currencies. Their recent diffusion has shown that Hayek's idea of denationalization of money and competition between multiple currencies in terms of its qualities, not its quantities sought as in ongoing quantitative easing, become more relevant under current situations. The qualities of money refer not only to stable monetary values and low transaction costs, but also to high ability in creating, sharing, and communicating social and cultural value. The potential of the logic of self-fulfillment of ideas can thus open up a new economic society when we realize that such various non-national currencies all depend on the same logic of money.

This book is the first to clarify the essential meaning and serious impact of globalization at the most abstract level from the point of view of Polanyi's three socioeconomic principles of exchange, reciprocity and redistribution. It also provides a theoretically coherent explanation of the evolution of the market and capitalist economies with respect to the advancement of commodification through Marx's internalization of the market into the community and state. Globalization is the long-term tendency of the market to extensively expand and deepen, and of the community and state to contract and become shallower. The ultimate goal of globalization is free investment capitalism for all people - not only capitalists and speculators, but workers, students, and housewives as well. The book also examines Hayek's criticism of a centrally planned economy and Lange's proposal of market socialism in the "Socialist Calculation" debate, which has been ongoing since the 1920s, and acknowledges Hayek's vision of a distributed market with local and tacit knowledge to explain why socialism is infeasible and capitalism is robust. The outcomes of globalization are disastrous in socioeconomic, cultural and ecological realms. As such, it argues that in the twenty-first century, a post-capitalist, cooperative market economy mediated by new forms of money as communication media must be achieved. These new media will include community currencies and local exchange trading systems (LETS) that can maintain the merits of money and the market and can overcome the defects of free investment capitalism. Lastly, this English version of the book includes a postscript explaining the significance and prospects of the socioeconomic changes around the globe since the publication of Japanese version in 2011.

This book provides a new way of understanding modern money and markets by stressing their self-fulfilling/self-destructive properties as institutions from evolutionary perspectives. In contrast to an unrealistic view of the neoclassical general equilibrium theory that models the price mechanism of a "concentrated market" without using money, presented here is an alternative theory of markets on how a realistic "dispersive market" using a stock of money and inventory as buffers can work as a multilayered price-quantitative adjustment system. The central features of modern sovereign moneys seen in inconvertible IOUs of central banknotes can be depicted as "The Emperor's New Clothes" that correspond to the U.S. dollar and the Euro void of their own value. The image captures such characteristics of national currencies as "self-fulfilling ideas" by the inertia of conventions in the past and expectations of an uncertain future. Both ideas normally make money more acceptable and circulative so that its value can become more stable unless expectations for the future turn very pessimistic. The same logic also applies to such other currencies as Bitcoin and community currencies. Their recent diffusion has shown that Hayek's idea of denationalization of money and competition between multiple currencies in terms of its qualities, not its quantities sought as in ongoing quantitative easing, become more relevant under current situations. The qualities of money refer not only to stable monetary values and low transaction costs, but also to high ability in creating, sharing, and communicating social and cultural value. The potential of the logic of self-fulfillment of ideas can thus open up a new economic society when we realize that such various non-national currencies all depend on the same logic of money.

This book is the first to clarify the essential meaning and serious impact of globalization at the most abstract level from the point of view of Polanyi's three socioeconomic principles of exchange, reciprocity and redistribution. It also provides a theoretically coherent explanation of the evolution of the market and capitalist economies with respect to the advancement of commodification through Marx's internalization of the market into the community and state. Globalization is the long-term tendency of the market to extensively expand and deepen, and of the community and state to contract and become shallower. The ultimate goal of globalization is free investment capitalism for all people - not only capitalists and speculators, but workers, students, and housewives as well. The book also examines Hayek's criticism of a centrally planned economy and Lange's proposal of market socialism in the "Socialist Calculation" debate, which has been ongoing since the 1920s, and acknowledges Hayek's vision of a distributed market with local and tacit knowledge to explain why socialism is infeasible and capitalism is robust. The outcomes of globalization are disastrous in socioeconomic, cultural and ecological realms. As such, it argues that in the twenty-first century, a post-capitalist, cooperative market economy mediated by new forms of money as communication media must be achieved. These new media will include community currencies and local exchange trading systems (LETS) that can maintain the merits of money and the market and can overcome the defects of free investment capitalism. Lastly, this English version of the book includes a postscript explaining the significance and prospects of the socioeconomic changes around the globe since the publication of Japanese version in 2011.