Paulo Casaca

On the Value of Money Paulo Casaca

Emphasis is given to the Slutsky Matrix and its associated income and substitution effects, since this is the only existing analytical tool designed to solve the question. This device is shown to be grossly erroneous. I did prove (Casaca, 2020) that the solution present in manuals and taught in economics courses is erroneous. I confirmed the original neo-classic founding father's perception that the problem lies in our inability to keep track of the changing value of money. Other than proving how wrong or useless the elucidations found afterwards are, I could not however find a solution to the problem. That is, I could not prove whether it is possible to track the changing value of money and, if it is, how to achieve this in a meaningful way - or, conversely, to prove the problem has no viable solution. Knowledge on the variation of the value of money is necessary for all the procedures that rely on the separation between 'real' and 'nominal' values - that is, virtually all economic accounting systems. This means that the most revered indicators of economic activity such as 'inflation' or 'economic growth' (GDP variation) are built on erroneous premises and lack any real and objective basis. Simply speaking, this means that the building structure of modern economics is dependent on the possibility of knowing the value of money, or at the very least the patterns of variation of the value of money. The fact that neither goals were attained saps the related scientific basis. This work will end with a discussion of possible venues for a scientific approach to the science of money, side by side with the science of markets.