Banks create money, but it's less impressive than it sounds
I&#x27;ve done extremely well obtaining goods and services by operating under my unpopular perceptions of the world, including how banks make money and the purpose of money and currency. My unpopular perceptions have consensus with the people that matter (banks, lawyers, accountants, regulators, courts) but they just won&#x27;t get very far on web forums if you try to tell people something that doesn&#x27;t match their understanding.<p>The primary cognitive dissonance with other people comes from tying morality to prosperity. Or put simply &quot;some people deserve money and when that criteria is not satisfied it is controversial&quot;, but what they <i>really</i> mean is that &quot;someone should have the ability to have goods and services more than others&quot;, with the money itself only being a reductive surrogate to make that happen.<p>The further you abstract yourself away from that, the easier it becomes to operate and see opportunities, or how to exchange time for more food and shelter in a more efficient way. How to have enough resources that the money itself looses additional utility, no different than how an abundance of oxygen looses its utility while a known upcoming absence of oxygen will redirect all of your thoughts and resources into making sure that doesn&#x27;t happen.<p>Yes, it should not be a mystery how banks can create money.