Money

Money is any token or other object that functions as a standard of exchange that is socially and officially accepted in payment for goods and services and in agreement of debts. Money also serves as a standard of value for measuring the relative worth of different goods and services and as a store of value. Some authors openly require money to be a standard of postponed payment.

Money includes both currency, particularly the many circulating currencies with legal tender status, and various forms of financial deposit accounts, such as demand deposits, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. In modern economies, exchange is the nominal component of the money supply.

Money is not the same as real value, the latter being the basic element in economics. Money is central to the study of economics and forms its most strong link to finance. The absence of money causes an economy to be wasteful because it requires a concurrence of wants between traders, and an agreement that these needs are of equal value, before a trade exchange can occur. The efficiency gains through the use of money are thought to encourage trade and the division of labour, in turn increasing efficiency and wealth