Economists often take money for granted, ignoring the role it plays in constraining the distribution of resources. A new book by economists J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev sets out to overturn the dogmatic assumptions of their profession.

The purported aim of Against Money is to put money back in its proper place. In the process, Mason and Jayadev put a lot of other economic concepts in their proper place too. Money, they show, is neither natural nor neutral. It is, rather, a distinct social institution or technology of coordination, with its own drive or logic.