Derivatives and Debt: The Market as God and Marketing as Proselytizing

Abstract

Most religions have images of their gods or spirits. There is often a preferred “veronica” or true image. The function of images is, according to the Catholic Church, to provide a focus for contemplation and the reflection of faith (McCrone, 1996). Often the image of the sacred is shrouded from human view, destructive to gaze upon or an imperfect reflection. Aspects of divinity are often perceived by some peoples in the spread of a disease through a population or its natural history in the signs and symptoms it creates in a body. Here we see an image of the god of capitalism (Figure 1). We can produce it from a variety of data, on the value of stock, prices of a variety of goods and services, and other means. But in general, the image is very similar. It traces the behavior of man’s faith in the value of his creations and in his future wealth. It is the single most important representation of the health of the world economy. In a Durkheimian sense, it gives as a representation of the sum total of society’s active mood and reflects, as some economists have said, the attitude and character of humanity. In a sociobiological sense, it represents the pushing and shoving of the actors involved, each trying to capture a greater share of the wealth available now and in the future, like ants (described by E.O. Wilson, 1976) trying to individually seize a piece of food, their common actions can be argued to be a tide of social consequence increasing the fitness of all concerned as they result in the arrival of the food in the nest. Objects of wealth and prestige motivate people to action in modern society and it has long been held in economic debates that contracts and money were modern phenomenon. In Figure 3 we see an image of Chinese “knife money” and its evolution to coinage (“Pu” money was earlier), cerca 700 BCE perhaps to CE 680. Figure 2 is the acknowledgement of a loan from CE 122 in Egypt from a woman, Tamystha to Heraclides, a man. This is a check of sorts undermining the idea that checks were invented in the 17 th century by the Dutch as receipts for gold. And in Figure 4 are images of tunny fish of Cyzicus and Cowrie Shells, Dentalium shells, Wampum and a coin of Thurii, all are pre-modern examples of money.