MONEY

A three-part interactive lesson series on how money actually works. Part 1, Dollar Expedition, walks eleven stops from what money is through the Fed’s ledger, government spending, taxes, deficits and bonds, to inflation as the real limit. Part 2, Ledger Expedition, does the same for commercial bank money. Part 3 carries the notes and sources every technical box links back to.

• > Two eleven-stop expeditions — government money, then bank money — stepped through one piece at a time, most stops ending in a check question
• > Ledger widgets throughout: post the entries for spending, taxes, QE and QT, then run a bank through lending, repayment, default and charge-off against a capital ceiling
• > Part 3 holds the sourced notes the technical boxes link into; progress is kept in the browser, and there is no backend

> what it does

MONEY — the Money Expedition — teaches how money is created and destroyed, one step at a time. It starts from what a dollar actually is, builds up the ledger mechanics behind government spending, taxes, deficits and bonds, and then does the same for the money commercial banks make when they lend. Explanation comes first; the numbers and the exercises only arrive once the idea is on the table.

Three static pages, no build step and no backend. The claims are sourced in Part 3 to US Code, the eCFR, the Federal Reserve, FRED and Treasury, and anything you work through is kept in your own browser.

> what’s inside

• >Part 1 — Dollar Expedition — eleven stops: what money is, how it is recorded, why there is no fixed pile, why everyone uses dollars, the Fed’s ledger, spending as creation, taxes as destruction, deficits and bonds, the Fed’s tools, inflation as the real limit, and the license that lets banks join in.
• >Part 2 — Ledger Expedition — eleven more on bank money: the charter, the two-sided book, a loan being born, capital as the speed limit, repayment destroying money, missed payments, the write-off, the ripple into future lending, and a bank simulator to run yourself.
• >Part 3 — Notes & Sources — anchored notes carrying the figures, the details and the external references; the technical boxes in the lessons link straight into them.
• >Worked, not watched — ledger widgets post the journal entries for spending, taxes, QE and QT; the bank simulator approves, repays, defaults and charges off loans against a capital ceiling; most stops close with a check question.
• >Glossary on tap — underlined terms open a definition where you tapped them, and each page keeps a glossary panel showing how many of the set you have unlocked so far.

Live at https://money.blackmesalabs.org.