Our money is created by bank loans, circulates, and is destroyed when the bank loan is paid off.

The graphic shows the life cycle of our money. It is created when a bank makes a loan, the new money is spent into the economy and circulates, and then it disappears when the bank loan is repaid. (See Chapter 7 in the book The Debt Standard: How our money system plagues our world for the details.)

Cycle of money creation (by bank loans), circulation, and destruction
Cycle of money creation (by bank loans), circulation, and destruction