The problem is that we are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, feedback driven reality, so we treat money as the signal to extract from the noise of society and the economy, but it functions as a medium, circulating to enable society and the economy to function. Consequently ever more has to be added and ever more precarious ways have to be devised to store what is extracted.

As a medium it is largely a contract, with one side an asset and the other a debt, so to store the asset, similar amounts of debt have to be generated.

One way is for the government to be the debtor of last resort. Try to imagine the capital markets, without the government siphoning off trillions of dollars of otherwise surplus money. Where would it go, otherwise? Derivatives? The secret sauce of capitalism is that public debt backs private wealth.

Consequently it empowers idiots to blow up other countries, as a way to burn off this excess, in order that more can be borrowed.

There is a reason the Fed is supposed to take the punch bowl away, when the party gets going, not just pour more vodka in, when it runs low.

The functionality of money is in its fungibility. It’s a medium, remember? We own it like we own the section of road we are using, or the fluids and air passing through our bodies. Try storing those.

Blood is a medium, fat is a store. Roads are a medium, parking lots are a store.

Yet Econ 101 says money is both medium of exchange and store of value.

So we destroy the world, in order to stick more money in our bank accounts, to save for the future.

Individually, people might be quite bright, but collectively we have as much sense as bacteria racing across a petri dish.