Money and totality: A review essay

Moseley’s (2016) Money and Totality focuses on two important issues: (a) the nature and significance of Marx’s notion of the “circuit of money capital” and (b) the solution to the “transformation problem”. The former question, in particular, makes this book important not only for Marx specialists but also for other dissenting economists. Recall that in writings before the General Theory Keynes (1933a, 1933b), in particular, made allusion to the Marxian circuit via the concept of the monetary theory of production. However, these references did not survive in the published version in 1936. Nor was Keynes at all confident on this topic in debate the following year. It is therefore important to both Marx scholars and other heterodox economists to inquire exactly how the Marxian circuit was supposed to work. A starting point is to write out the scheme from Capital Vol. 2 (Marx, 1885/1976) in full, M – C … P … C’ – M’, and try to explain what the magnitudes (M’ – M) and (C’ – C), are supposed to represent. This is indeed one of Moseley’s main tasks in this thought-provoking book.