Investment

The emergence and success of stock and financial markets is thus, to a certain extent, obvious. They drive the de-substantialization of money observed by Simmel beyond money (chap. 4/II). Indeed, they are entirely in line with the teleology of money diagnosed by Schumpeter. They achieve the trick of combining investment, i.e. the abandonment of liquidity for the purpose of profit or asset protection, with the advantages of liquidity, i.e. the immediate return of the investment, the sale of the respective asset. >> liquidity

To be precise: Stocks, bonds, loans, derivatives or whatever is traded on the stock exchanges are not money; the liquidity of these securities is limited compared to cash, but their saleability, unlike that of a home, is in principle guaranteed by the stock exchange listing. The special risk of an investment in securities – but also its special attraction! -is therefore the difference between the purchase price and the resale price - and only secondarily the amount of the dividend. Who says liquidity, says speculation. This – and above all, of course, its potential to unleash macroeconomic or even global crises - is the price to be paid for the flexibility and dynamism of capitalism (chap. 7/1II).

PAUL, Axel T., 2012. Die Gesellschaft des Geldes: Entwurf einer monetären Theorie der Moderne. 2., erw. Aufl. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. ISBN 978-3-531-17146-3.