The maximum money supply is infinite, and the marginal value of dollars approaching an infinite number is zero, and every levered loan, derivative contract, and

The maximum money supply is infinite, and the marginal value of dollars approaching an infinite number is zero, and every levered loan, derivative contract, and rehypothecated asset creates new hot money out of risk. Banks pre-2008 were loaning out 30x the cash they had on hand. That is what creates the money. The loan creates it. This is not loaning out money they in fact have at all, it's pure risk compensated for by the rate of interest. The rest about fractional reserve is mostly accurate, but that fraction of reserve they keep and lever up 10-50x, and then charge fees, interest and commissions back on - together these make the bank a dynamical system whose failure mode requires exogenous recapitalization. Banks are just government backed hedge funds with airs. The challenge with the article is that if you stop believing in the integrity and base reality of fiat (layer 1 capital), apprehending the consequences of what else has (or doesn't have) meaning is a bit much to ask of most people who work really hard just to align to their norms and are very personally invested in them. Cryptocurrencies were a forcing function on a critical theory of money, and that's more radical than mere 20th century radicals were willing to go, imo.