Money out of thin air · Rebel Economist (Free)

Money out of thin air

Still noodling on how to describe the monetary system in words my Mum could understand.

Regarding money creation and the mind bending reality of 'money out of thin air'. The metaphor that is resonating with me is the concept of Immaculate Conception.Folks understand the principle of it and this is very much like how money is created. Unlike anything else it is created with no 'work', with no production cost, with no combination of materials, with no effort whatsoever. I think this is why it is so abhorrent to our common sense. How can anything be produced from nothing?

This for me is the root of the misdirection of 'the national debt'. We know that the government does not have to 'work' to find the money to spend (Immaculate Conception of government spending). But if you don't appreciate the reality of this Immaculate Conception, you will continue to ask the question 'but where will we find the money', 'but, we need to borrow to pay for stuff', 'the national debt is unaffordable' etc etc.

The reverse of the Immaculate Conception is the destruction on money into nothingness and deletion - this logically is not too difficult if you accept immaculate conception but too difficult to grasp if you don't.

There is also the Private version of Immaculate Conception when banks create money for loans and their destruction into the void when the loans are repaid.

The story of money creation is so shocking to the 'common sense' that I for one will be describing it in an uncommon way because that is just what it is - a totally uncommon process. No production cost, no need for materials, no need for labour - money from nowhere with no cost or 'for free' as the rest of us might describe it

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