<i>Money is merely one slightly special and easy-to-measure token in an economy, but it isn&#x27;t really what economics is about.</i><p>&quot;It is self-contradictory to discuss a process which admittedly could not take place without money, and at the same time to assume that money is absent or has no effect.&quot; - F.A. Hayek, <i>The Pure Theory of Capital</i>, 1941: p. 31<p>Certainly, this is not to say economics is about money. However, to assume any form of monetary neutrality in the short or long run is a folly, for any economy governed by monetary exchange has a critical relationship with monetary and financial institutions. Monopolies on issuance of currency complicate recovery, as well.<p>If anything, many economists neglect money. Indeed, it was naive IS-LM models with interest-insensitive money demand functions was what ignited the so-called &quot;monetarist counterrevolution&quot;.