Money and Credit. Inseparable Like the Grinning From the CheshireCat

The discretion of the central bank is in primis exercised in the management of its main working tool: money itself. Different theories of money are considered, in particular the market-oriented, metallist view, and the perspective that puts the state as the only authority that can define a medium of exchange as money, the chartalist view. The monetary function of credit is also examined, in the light of Henry Thornton’s theory of paper credit.