Money is created in one of two ways: by the government making payments (Uncle Sam writes you a check, the bank then credits that to your account) or the bank extending a loan, in which case the bank credits money to your account against a contract saying you’re going to pay it back. The government extinguishes money by taking in taxes; the bank extinguishes it by taking in loan repayments.
Source: http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2020/05/well-need-mass-debt-forgiveness-to.html
This is exactly right. But distinguish "money" from "wealth". I define "wealth" as the actual value that money can buy. Just printing more dollars doesn't create wealth. Money is just a potential claim on assets. And if society as a whole produces less (say by killing hogs that can't be processed) and is paid more (by collecting unemployment for doing nothing), then the value of money declines and you have inflation.
I was going to say that certain stocks function as money, but that can't be right, because you can't buy your groceries with a stock. What about Bitcoin?
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