Most Money Exists as Bank Balances

This where my money is: in an account in Wells Fargo bank in the States.

Once a month this account gets credited with more money from Social Security's account. And I can use my credit card, in Costa Rica, to get the cash I need for my rent. There is a small charge for changing Dollars into Colonies.

I am not in the drug business, but if I were, I would be getting a lot of cash, boxes of it. When what I needed was money in a bank balance. The process of moving this cash into a bank balance is known as money laundering.

This is illegal, but banks in Southern Florida are doing a lot of it, and this contributes to the booming economy there.

Facebook's Libra currency would do the same thing, without any banks being involved. Members of Congress are up in arms about this because this would cost them a lot of money, that they get from the banks.