The GDP-FX Triangle as Evidence that Financial Assets Function as Effective Money
"This implies that currencies are equity-linked claims, and therefore that financial assets function as money at the macroeconomic level."
Theoretical Framing
This proportionality arises because equity and debt jointly define the monetary value of domestic claims:
Empirical Results
Interpretation: The Balance-Sheet Mechanism of Currency Value
Hence, both internal and external money values are determined by asset stocks, not by base money.
Policy and Theoretical Implications
The GDP-FX triangle provides external, cross-country confirmation that financial assets function as effective money.
Domestically, credit expansion (ΔDebt) generates nominal GDP; externally, asset valuation (ΔEquity) determines the exchange value of that nominal income.
Hence, both the quantity and price of money are balance-sheet outcomes.
Appendix C. Triangulation and Hierarchy of Evidence: Debt, Assets, and the Monetary Function of the Balance Sheet
"Across all tests, posterior belief that financial assets perform the monetary function exceeds 99.5 %, satisfying the “decisive evidence” threshold."
The Three Axes of Empirical Proof
This establishes the creation mechanism of effective money.
Nominal purchasing power arises not from central-bank base money but from private and public credit issuance.
Balance-Sheet Structure (Ω): Assets as Money’s Internal Equivalent
Assets Are Effective Money: Empirical and Theoretical Evidence from Balance-Sheet Dynamics
This paper argues and demonstrates empirically that financial assets are effective money: their expansion drives aggregate demand, profits, and inflation with measurable lags and with statistical precision that far exceeds the explanatory capacity of conventional monetary aggregates (M1, M2, or base money).
@russellwadey Inflation as the Price-Level Representation of Claim Dilution
"If equity exists on the macro balance sheet, then inflation is the logical and empirical representation of claim dilution — i.e., the price-level adjustment that reconciles expanding nominal claims with real output."
@russellwadey When the total stock of nominal claims expands more rapidly than real output, the purchasing power of each existing claim declines.
@russellwadey Thus, if equity exists on the balance sheet, inflation is the arithmetic reconciliation of nominal claim expansion with real output.
@russellwadey From Ex-Post Income Identity to Ex-Ante Balance-Sheet Dynamics
The income-expenditure identity is descriptive; it records how GDP is distributed.
The balance-sheet identity is causal; it explains how GDP is created.
@russellwadey The identity therefore tells us how income was spent, not why it changed.
@russellwadey Thus, to generate additional spending in aggregate, one sector must expand its balance sheet.
This converts the income-expenditure framework into a flow-of-funds mechanism:
Policy Regimes Are Balance-Sheet States, Not Discretionary Switches
“Using a Markov-switching reaction function and logit bridge, we show that the probability of an ‘active’ Fed regime rises systematically with total-debt-to-GDP (Ω). Policy regime is not independent; it’s a balance-sheet state.”