Primitive and Modern Economics: Derivatives, Liquidity, Value, Panic and Crises, A Uniformitarian View

Abstract

This paper investigates aspects of economics in the context of complex society and the nature of investment devices in cross-cultural comparison, placing special attention on the new global issues of money, hedge fund contracts, derivatives and other risk-spreading concepts and practices. The function of these are compared to the behavior of the inventors and practitioners in other cultures. Similarities are noted with religious formulators and the process of conversion and the operation of the market and credit paralleled with the concept of Mana. This work provides a context for understanding contemporary human economic behavior. Novel structures of symbolic worth are associated with individual presentation and performance. Clearly concepts of value and credit have been changing in modern financial culture. Indeed, they have been expressing forms that have traditionally been associated with primitive economics. An understanding of the current financial and social losses resulting from the subprime collapse is presented along with a means to counter it.

Keywords:

• Caching
• Money
• Credit
• Hedge funds
• CDOs
• The market
• Mana
• Derivatives