ABSTRACT
Economists are accustomed to thinking it is all about money. Our entire training is focused on measuring all real ‚ows in terms of the dollar ‚ows that represent them. In short, dollars are merely symbols of the “stuff of real value” circulating in the economy-they are not the actual wealth. The wealth (goods, services, energy, and human labor) moves in one direction while the money to compensate for the transfer of the wealth moves in the other. Economics, as it is structured, often induces us to misplace our attention on the money rather than on the item of real value.
