The way I think of it is that when you make a purchase, the money just basically switches bank accounts. The money is still in the banks, and currency is not c

The way I think of it is that when you make a purchase, the money just basically switches bank accounts. The money is still in the banks, and currency is not created or destroyed, just exchanged between players. When a bank makes a loan using it's customer's money, the balance in the account doesn't disappear -- and the money is still available to the customers. But now a loan for a car financed by a bank goes into the car dealer's bank account which then gets loaned out by that bank. This happens over and over again in a recursive manner. This is the Monetary Multiplier Effect as part of Fractional Reserve Banking. It's basically kind of a regulated shell game. The bank has to have so much in cash to pay out in case of a bank run, and the FDIC protects customers from bad bank management. But your money is literally replaced with a number in an account balance. And your $10k in the bank might generate $40k of loans in the economy based upon your deposit. An investment however removes cash from your account and replaces it with shares and that money is given to someone else. So it's an exchange of money and an exchange of shares. And thereby doesn't have the same multiplication effect. In this case value is created or lost which makes your shares worth more or less on the market. Again, value doesn't create money. Money is exchanged between parties for different amounts. A 1981 bordeaux doesn't create currency over time, just increases it's value.