Endogenous currency and monetary theory of production

The aim of this paper is to examine the compatibility of Keynes’ monetary production theory with the “horizontalist” approach to the determination of the interest rates and the money supply. According to Moore the short-term interest rates are exogenously determined by central banks, so that the portfolio approach to its determination, based on the liquidity preference theory, is incorrect. Keynes’ theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the nature of money as an asset, whose interest rate, endogenously determined by liquidity preference, will set the limit to the marginal efficiency of other assets. This essay suggests that the “horizontalist” approach is not compatible with Keynes’s view on “money as a ‘real’ factor”.

KEYWORDS:
Money supply; interest rate determination; post-keynesianism; endogenous money;