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Market liquidity

Money must also function as a means of liquidity. It is important for any economy to move beyond a simple system of bartering. Liquidity describes how easy it is an item can be traded for something that you want, or into the common currency within an economy. Money is the most liquid asset because it is universally recognised and accepted as the common currency. In this way, money gives consumers the freedom to trade goods and services easily without having to barter.

Liquid financial instruments are easily tradable and have a low transaction costs. There should be no or minimal spread between the prices to buy and sell the instrument being used as money.

Types of money

In economics, money is a broad term that refers to any instrument that can be used in the resolution of debt. However, not all money is created equal.

One theoretician, Ludwig von Mises, argued for the importance of distinguishing between three types of money: commodity money, fiat money, and credit money. Each carries different economic strengths and liabilities - a point driven home in his book The Theory of Money and Credit.

Modern monetary theory also distinguishes between different types of money, using a categorization system that focuses on the liquidity of money.

Fiat money

Fiat money is any money whose value is determined by legal means rather than the relative availability of goods and services. Fiat money may be symbolic of a commodity or government promises.

Fiat money provides solutions to several limitations of commodity money. Depending on the laws, there may be little or no need to physically transport the money - an electronic exchange may be sufficient. Its sole use is as a medium of exchange so its supply is not limited by competing alternate uses. It can be printed without limit, so there is no limit on trade volumes.

Fiat money, especially in the form of paper or coins, can be easily damaged or destroyed. However, it has an advantage over commodity money in that the same laws that created the money can also define rules for its replacement in case of damage or destruction. For example, the US government will replace mutilated paper money if at least half of the bill can be reconstructed. By contrast commodity money is gone for good.

Paper money is especially vulnerable to everyday hazards: from fire, water, termites, and simple wear and tear. Money in the form of minted coins is sometimes destroyed by children placing it on railroad tracks or in amusement park machines that restamp it. In order to reduce replacement costs, many countries are converting to plastic bills. For example, Mexico has changed its twenty and fifty pesos notes, Singapore its $2 and $10 bills, Malaysia with $1, $5, $10, $50 and $100, and Australia and New Zealand their $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 to plastic for the increased durability.

Some of the benefits of fiat money can be a double-edged sword. For example, if the amount of money in active circulation outstrips the available goods and services for sale, the effect can be inflationary. This can easily happen if governments print money without attention to the level of economic activity or counterfeiters are allowed to flourish.

Perhaps the biggest criticism of paper money relates to the fact that its stability is highly dependent on the stability of the legal system backing the currency. Should the legal system fail, so would the currency that depends on it.