4,249 works (including 483 books, 3,406 articles and 357 historical documents), 150 years of economic thought. Each one summarized and searchable.
Money lets its holder postpone a purchase—but what place can postponement have in a theory where all choices are already reconciled? In this article, first published in 1972 and reprinted here in 1988, G. L. S. Shackle weighs marginalism’s achievements against its exclusion of historical time. He shows how marginal analysis turns diverse private valuations into common market measures, while arguing that demonstrably optimal choice requires knowledge unavailable to people facing an uncertain future. His perspective is neither a rejection of equilibrium nor a defence of its universal reach: its coherence illuminates economic relationships without reproducing the predicament of actual decision-makers. Money makes the distinction concrete, allowing readers to see why a framework that explains prices and distribution can struggle to explain the freedom to wait.