Senhoriagem ou soberania?

This paper contrasts the well known concept of seigniorage with sovereignty. The sovereignty approach links the State?s ability to issue a currency denominated in the unit of account it has chosen, without any explicit guarantee that the currency will be converted to anything, to a fundamental power that is directly associated with sovereign nations. Any sovereign State that has the ability to impose tax liabilities will be able to issue a fiat money, to exogenously maintain overnight interest rates, and to deficit spend, purchasing goods and services by crediting bank reserves. It will never need to borrow before it can spend. Many nations have chosen not to exercise this sovereign power, choosing instead to fix exchange rates, to issue government debt denominated in a foreign currency, or to operate with a currency board. This paper will show why this is a mistake, and will argue that the sovereignty approach offers insights into operation of modern money systems that the notion of seigniorage cannot provide.