1. Introduction: money as a social institution 2

2. Money versus credit 4

  Payment and the survival constraint 4

  Money settles, credit promises 5

  The hierarchy of money 6

  Par 8

  Market-making and the prices of money 10

3. Elasticity versus discipline 11

  Flux and reflux: creating money and funding it 12

  Boom and bust: the inherent instability of credit 14

4. Private initiative versus public validation 15

  Backstops 16

  Validation: how private money is absorbed 17

  The state, the law and the unit of account 18

5. Domestic money versus global money 19

  The hierarchy of international money and the global dollar system 19

  Asymmetric backstops 22

6. New monies, old lessons 23

  Gold, bitcoin and the negation of trust 23

  Stablecoins: private initiative at the frontier 27

7. Conclusion: the architecture of trust 30