What is money?

What is money? Is it an agreed upon lie assigning artificial value to an entity people use to transact business in lieu of physicals goods (barter) or is it something else altogether? For yours truly, the right answer to what is money goes to a Mr. Art Berman, an energy guy who knows a lot, including his definition of what money truly is. :)

Energy is the economy.

Money is a call on energy, the capacity to do work.

Debt is a lien on future energy.

Yours truly got this definition from Charles Hugh Smith, an economist who takes the long view on everything.

We think we understand "money"--we don't.  We think the current versions of "money" are the final versions--they aren't.

Understanding "money" requires some heavy-lifting, but it's important, so let's dig in.

The most accurate description of "money" (in quotes because it's not what we think it is) is Art Berman's shorthand:

A definition worth repeating.

Energy is the economy.

Money is a call on energy, the capacity to do work.

Debt is a lien on future energy.

We think that creating more "money" can solve all problems. It can't.  Creating more "money" only adds another crisis to the fundamental crisis, a scarcity of affordable energy and resources.

The two laws of Thermodynamics rule.

Annotated color version of the original 1824 Carnot heat engine showing the hot body (boiler), 

working body (system, steam), and cold body (water), the letters labeled according 

to the stopping points in Carnot cycle.

Carnot engine diagram (modern) - where an amount of heat QH flows from a high temperature TH furnace through the fluid of the "working body" (working substance) and the remaining heat QC flows into the cold sink TC, thus forcing the working substance to do mechanical work W on the surroundings, via cycles of contractions and expansions.