One idea you might consider has to do with the nature of money. We tend to view it as a commodity, to save and store, but what it functions as, is a contract between the individual and the community. Basically a glorified voucher system.
As such, the asset is backed by a debt, even if it’s some quantity of a commodity, like gold, or oil. Though in our current system, it is backed by government debt.
Econ 101 says money is both medium of exchange and store of value, but a medium is dynamic, while a store is static. Blood is a medium, fat is a store. Roads are a medium, parking lots are a store. It doesn’t work to mix them up.
Markets need money to circulate, but we are goal oriented creatures and see it as the signal to extract from the noise of society and the economy. Requiring ever more to be added and ever more speculative methods of storing what has been extracted.
For one thing, the government has become debtor of last resort. Could the capital markets function, without the government siphoning up trillions in apparently surplus money? Where would it go, otherwise? Derivatives? Apple stock?
Given much is spent on the military, it would seem the primary function of which is to spend this money, in order that more can be borrowed. The secret sauce of capitalism is that public debt backs private wealth.
Considering we are about to find out that pushing trillions more money into the economy doesn’t solve the core problems, we need to understand that it is a lubricant, not a fuel. Its functionality is in its fungibility, so we own it like we own the section of road we are using, or the fluids passing through our bodies. It is a public utility and needs to be treated as such.
