Thanks for another excellent analysis.

Even before the financial economy overtook the real economy (as a proportion of the GDP) in the 1980's, by design the function of the real economy was to sustain the financial economy. All money originated with it in the form of debt (private, as discussed in this article, or public, in the form of money created for the central bank to purchase debt issued by the central government).

In the process, though, money did have to circulate through the real economy. As pointed out in this article, the original QE created a vast flow of money directly into the financial economy without having to contribute anything towards the real economy. The response to Covid was to ensure that people would have enough money to meet our 'obligations' to the financial economy.

We desperately need a better approach to money.