‘Outdated and misleading’: is it time to reassess the very concept of money?
by Stuart Kells from Economics | The Guardian on (#6KRJ3)
It's regularly being created and destroyed - and economic models that don't reflect that fact are not even slightly useful
In the classic 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, depositors demand their money from a small town building society. Its manager, George Bailey (in an unforgettable performance by James Stewart), explains that the money is not in the building society's vault; it has been lent to other people in the town. The money's not there," Bailey pleads. Your money's in Joe's house ... and in the Kennedy house, and Mrs Macklin's house, and a hundred others."
Bailey's explanation reflects a widespread idea of how banks work.
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