The Fundamental, Macroeconomic Problem Is Not Uncertainty, Which Knight Stated Can Be Dealt With by ‘Estimates’ and Which Keynes Dealt With by ‘Interval Valued Probability’ and ‘Conventional Coefficients’ : It Is the Continued Presence of Adam Smith’s Upper Income Class ‘Prodigals, Imprudent Risk Takers, and Projectors’ (Keynes’s Rentiers and the ‘…Forces of Banking and Finance…’) and Their ...

Aristotle's analysis of the misuse of money provided the fundamental analysis of the dangers caused by segments of the upper income class that Socrates characterized as sophistic and sycophantic. Socrates saw that the problem was that parts of the upper income class sought their political and economic advantage in a way that undermines the vitality of the middle class. Their wealth is used, not to produce investment goods, but is used to speculate in land and real estate. Today, such an approach is called financialization and securitization.Basically, Aristotle gave a precise, general explanation of the problem. Trade and commerce through markets need money in order to facilitate the necessary transactions that result in the provision of final goods for sale in markets. These final goods were produced by skilled labor that was combined with capital, producer, or investment, goods like tools, equipment, machinery, etc. in a plant or factory. Money used for the production of consumption or investment goods satisfied the following formula: C-M-C', which encapsulates the use of money as a transaction demand for money in the production of both consumer and producer goods,where C’ is the transformed, final, more valuable consumer or producer good that results. However, Aristotle was able to characterize the goals of a substantial portion of Athens upper income classes as using money for other purposes, given by M-C-M’ or M-M’. Speculative finance, financialization, and securitization involve M-M’, which involves the manipulation of purely financial claims to assets so that the financial values can be driven higher in the market place. This is done by the use of debt leverage, which requires the ability of the speculator to obtain bank loans so as to be able to bid up the paper, accounting prices of physical products to higher levels. This always involves the creation of a bubble.Every great spiritual leader and guide from Moses to Confucius to Buddha to Socrates to Jesus to Augustine to Mohammed to Aquinas to Adam Smith to Ramakrishna to Gandhi has recognized what the fundamental problem is -the financial, manipulative and speculative use of money to derive a profit without the production of any consumer or producer good