Money and the Creation of Bank Deposits

Abstract

We all know what money is and most of us are only too aware that we do not have enough of it! Hardly a day goes by when we do not use it. We certainly have no difficulty in recognising it when we see it. Despite this, it is not easy to obtain a precise definition of exactly what money is. This, as we shall see on p. 144, is partly because there is no unique asset or small group of assets which can be thought of as money. In fact the only sensible way to define money is in terms of its functions. So what are the functions of money?