When the sceptical financial writer James Grant called his book Money of the Mind, this is what he meant. We now live in a strange world, after all, where the loan we get from the bank is considered by both lender and borrower as an asset.
But there are other senses in which money doesn't exist. So often our relationship with money is an expression of what is going on inside our minds rather than an objective process. Like everything else in life, if you cling onto it too tightly, it tends to seep away. If you give it away - as most religions urge us to give away or 'tithe' at least 10% of our income - it often seems to come back.
We also know how much the markets depend on belief to give shares value. The value of shares or currencies depends on moods, weather patterns and what traders believe will happen. Belief creates wealth; in other words, it keeps the edifice afloat - otherwise we could not trust each other enough to exchange money. Belief creates money; cynicism undermines it.
