Reference no: EM133094159

Discussion: Monetary Policy

The subject of this week's discussion is Monetary Policy, and how money effects our daily lives. Money is an interesting concept that we learn at a very young age. As children, we learn that things we want aren't always free. If you want a piece of candy or a new toy, you have to exchange money to get it. But what is money exactly? According to our textbooks, "money is any generally accepted means of payment" (Coppock & Mateer, 2021). This can mean a lot of different things in different cultures, but here in America, money is generally expresses in paper and coin currency. We use currency to purchase the goods and services we need in our daily lives, like food, water, clothing, and transportation.

Before the exchange of currency was the standard, bartering was used to trade for goods and services. If you needed food, you could trade clothes for it. If you needed work done on your home, you could barter with livestock. While these are ancient concepts, bartering is still very much used today. During the coronavirus pandemic, people all around the world were exchanging, trading, and bartering, whether to help the local community, save money, or simply locate hard-to-find baking materials (Jones, 2020). When bartering began to be replaced with currency, many different items were exchanged before paper money and metal coins.

As old as 118 B.C., "leather money was used in China in the form of one-foot-square pieces of white deerskin with colorful borders" (pbs.org, 1996). It is easy to see how this form of currency would eventually turn into the currency we know today. This is because the leather pieces were small, easy to carry, and could be traveled around with. The bible also has a lot to say about money in our lives. One of my favorite verses states, "whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless" (Ecclesiastes 5:10). This statement was true then, and even more true today. The pursuit of wealth is the American way. While money and wealth are necessary, we should not let it dictate every aspect of our lives.

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