The dollar is a unit of weight. It is a unit of weight masquerading as a stable unit of value, or buying power. If we were to define a dollar as a dozen eggs, thenceforth the price of eggs would necessarily and always be a dollar a dozen. Nevertheless, the supply and demand of eggs would keep on working. For instance, If the hens failed to lay, the price of eggs would not rise, but the price of almost everything else would fall. One egg would buy more than before.

Money is a measuring instrument much like a clock, a ruler or a scale. But instead of measuring time, space or weight, it measures what something is worth. Money is like everything else in an economy. It loses value when there’s too much of it.