Money is a contract, with one side an asset and the other a debt. It originated as forms of voucher systems; tokens from the community for services rendered.

It has become disconnected from this underlaying function by the fact that people naturally try to save and store it, treating it as a commodity. Which pulls it from circulation, necessitating more be issued, than services rendered.

Yet it remains a contract and the debt has to be added to the system, in some form. One large way is for the government to borrow it and spend in ways which don’t compete with the private sector for profits. Where would that twenty trillion have gone, otherwise? Derivatives? Apple stock?

So basically it supports surplus population and blowing up the occasional irritating country, as way to sustain the illusion of stored wealth.

As a contract, it is a useful medium, as it can be calibrated to need, even if this translates to excess desire, but lousy store and Econ 101 insists it is both.

In the body, blood is the medium and fat is the store. Economists are basically publicists for the banking industry.