Today, as the discussion of monetary affairs has sometimes moved from the money market or economy pages to the lifestyle and culture pages of leading daily periodicals, Simmel's project of a Philosophy of Money launched 111 years ago has received a new impulse of life. Indeed, the impetus for taking a fresh look at Simmel's work 100 years after the publication of the fragments in 1899 came from the launch of the Euro project just as much as from the availability of Simmel's seminal work in English. The project launched by Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand had, at its core, few economic considerations, but was laden from the start with political calculations that had to do with repercussions on European culture, on how people would feel about Europe, its own way of life, its chances for enlargement, integration and cultural and social prosperity. This thesis, of course, is very much at variance with what dominated discussions among economists. In fact, these discussions had not a single reference to Simmel. Since Simmel's work had, however, been available in English since 1978, and republished in 1990, this alternative view, that a Simmeltype explanation is needed in order to explain the Euro phenomenon could be reasonably discussed with our English language based colleagues. Hence, a substantial part of the discussions had been devoted to this topic, while other issues all relating to Simmel's "Philosophy of Money" were also explored.

Table of contents:
Jürgen G. Backhaus: Introduction
Richard E. Wagner: Georg Simmel's "Philosophy of Money": Some points of Relevance for Contemporary Monetary Scholarship
Wolfgang Drechsler: Money as Myth and Reality
Jürgen G. Backhaus: Money and its Economic and Social Functions
Peter R. Senn: A Conversation with Professor Simmel about the Euro
Natàlia C. Milà: Georg Simmel's Theory of Value
Ralph M. Leck: Americanization as a Symbol of Money: Georg Simmel as Critical Theorist
Alla Sheptun: A Note on "Philosophy of Money"
Albert Gajo & Mirlinda Russi: Money in the Process of Transformation: Lessons from Simmel Applied to the Case of Albania
Paul H. Dembinski & Christophe Perritaz: Towards the Break-up of Money: When Reality - Driven by Information Technology - Outshines Simmel's Vision