Glossary

(Once I figure out how to bookmark and link to each individual term, I will be able to direct you to the specific term referenced. Until then, you'll have to scroll the word yourself.)

Capitalism: the social system in which individual rights are applied to the realm of trade; a social system based on private ownership of the means of production. (Reisman, pg 19) Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. (Ayn Rand)

Commodity money: money that is a definite physical quantity of a good; Wiki: money whose value comes from a commodity out of which it is made

Currency: a form of money; a unit of exchange. Coins and paper money are two types of currency.

Demand deposit: an account held at a financial institution such as a bank in which the funds placed there are to be available "on demand."

Economics: the science which studies the production of wealth under a system of division of labor.

Fiat paper money: a system where the value of money is not tied to any physical good. It's usefulness arises not from an intrinsic value but from the government order that it must be accepted as payment. In this system, money does not serve as a claim to anything other than itself.

Fiduciary Media: transferable claims to standard money, payable by the issuer on demand, accepted as an equivilant to standard money, but for which no standard money actually exists. An example of fiduciary media is the portion of the money supply held today in checking deposits. Given the current state of the fractional reserve banking system, "money equivilents" are created and circulate in the economy far in excess of the existence of standard money.

Fungibility: Wiki: the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution. Money is fungible in that one dollar bill can be substituted for any other dollar bill.

Gold Standard: a monetary system in which a region's common media of exchange is gold or paper notes that are freely convertible into pre-set, fixed quantities of gold.

Inflation: an increase in the quantity of money at a rate more rapid than the increase in the supply of gold and silver. In a system of fiat paper money, inflation would be defined as an increase in the supply of money. (This second definition is problematic because of the difficulty of defining what constitutes money.)

Mixed Economy: an economy which remains capitalistic in its basic structure, but in which the government stands ready to intervene by bestowing favors on some groups and imposing penalties on others (Reisman pg 34); an economy based on the private ownership of the means of production but more or less severely hampered by an extensive list of socialistically motivated government intervention (Reisman, pg 264.)

Money: a good readily acceptable in exchange by everyone in a given geographical region and is sought for the purpose of exchange; anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts; that which serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value. (Note: Wikipedia's definition of money uses "unit of account" instead of "standard of value" which is the accurate phrase to use when defining fiat money. Fiat money can not serve as an objective standard of value, but can serve as a unit of counting.)

Politics (or political science): the science which determines the principles of a proper social system.

Socialism: an economic system based on government ownership of the means of production (Reisman, pg 264); !--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy (Dictionary.com)

Standard Money: Money that is not itself a claim to anything further.

Statism: The practice or doctrine of giving a centralized government control over economic planning and policy (Dictionary.com); the political expression of altruism is collectivism or statism, which holds that man’s life and work belong to the state—to society, to the group, the gang, the race, the nation—and that the state may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good ( Ayn Rand .)

Wealth: the material goods made by man; also land and natural resources in so far as man has made them usable and accessible.