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Why Increases In Money Supply Can’t Create Economic Growth – OpEd

12 0
06.07.2026

Money Is Not Wealth — Money is merely a medium of exchange that facilitates transactions; it cannot be consumed or used directly in production. Increasing the money supply does not create real wealth — only production does.

Inflation Distorts the Economy — Monetary inflation generates demand not backed by production, which undermines savings, capital formation, and genuine growth. It creates false signals that lead to malinvestment and eventual economic slumps.

Unbacked Consumption Weakens Growth — True economic growth requires production, savings, and capital investment. Policies that boost consumption through money printing weaken the foundation of sustainable prosperity and cannot replace genuine economic activity.

The view that an increase in the money supply could revive an economy is based on the idea that money transmits its effect through the aggregate expenditure. With more money in their pockets, people will be able to spend more, and the rest will follow suit. Money, however, only enables one producer to exchange his produce with another producer. According to Murray Rothbard,

Money, per se, cannot be consumed and cannot be used directly as a producers’ good in the productive process. Money per se is therefore unproductive; it is dead stock and produces nothing.

Money, per se, cannot be consumed and cannot be used directly as a producers’ good in the productive process. Money per se is therefore unproductive; it is dead stock and produces nothing.

The ultimate means of payment are always goods and services, which pay for other goods and services. All that money does is to facilitate these payments; it makes certain payments possible.

For instance, a baker exchanges his bread for money and then uses the money to buy shoes. He ultimately pays for the shoes not with money but with the bread he produced. Money just allows him to make this transaction. Also, note that the baker’s production of bread gives rise to his demand for money.

By demand for money, what we really mean here is the demand for money’s purchasing power. After all, people do not want a greater amount of money in their pockets but rather they want a greater purchasing power in their possession. According to Mises,

The services money renders are conditioned by the height of its purchasing power. Nobody wants to have in his cash holding a definite number of pieces of money or a definite weight of money; he wants to keep a cash holding of a definite amount of purchasing power.

The services money renders are conditioned by the height of its purchasing power. Nobody wants to have in his cash holding a definite number of pieces of........

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