The reality is actually significantly worse than what parent comment posits. Money gets created out of thin air frequently in banking, it's quite the scheme / sham.
Learning more about how the financial system works is usually upsetting, and in surprising ways. The entire business has a certain ring and scumbag scent to it.
I don't think that's a fair interpretation of money or of what banks are doing.
Imagine that a business has $1M/month of revenue, mostly through a quote and purchase order system where the terms are typically net 30. Then imagine they turn to net 60 or net 15, either increasing or decreasing their cashfrow for a single month. The terms of the invoicing are debt creation. And all debt creation is money creation.
Thinking of money like swapping gold really limits the reality of how money has always functioned in our society. Money and debt are social relations, bonds between people, bonds between individuals and a larger collective. It's a human creation, that's been created again and again over time, and the idea of a money-less society is pretty much impossible to come up with.
We must think of money not as an external thing, outside of humanity, but as an essential part of what humans do and create.
Learning more about how the financial system works is usually upsetting, and in surprising ways. The entire business has a certain ring and scumbag scent to it.