actually it isn't monopoly money it is actually real money being lost or gained.
Let me hand you a $100 currency note and ask you a simple question: What do you think this $100 note is worth? The answer is 'belief'. You believe that $100 bill is worth $100 because it says 'Federal Reserve' on it. What is backing up all our paper money? Since Nixon took us off the gold standard, which backed up our money, it's now backed up by nothing other than 'the full faith and credit of the US government'.
And why do people believe in what the US Government says? They just do. Gotta believe in something, so why not something that has the backing of the very constitution which we have created for ourselves? People believe that the US as a nation will be stable long enough for them to be able to use this ‘fancy paper’ as a medium of exchange, hence its value. As long as that belief holds true and the nation remains stable, the US Govt. holds its credibility in the eyes of people.
Thus, money has value because people believe it does. And as long as they believe the story, it continues to hold value. The moment they stop, it fails and becomes a worthless piece of paper and our economy and society falls apart.
Ask yourself a question. If all the money in the U.S. only totals $6 trillion how can the New York Stock Exchange have stocks valued at $15 trillion? The value of oil, the value of IBM, the value of any major stock is nothing more than an estimated net worth, it's not a specific number or value.
One example:
If all the money in the U.S. only totals $6 trillion, how can the New York Stock Exchange have stocks valued at $15 trillion? | HowStuffWorks
On the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), as of October 1999 there were 3,066 companies listed. One of them was IBM. A site like this one would tell you that IBM had 1,809,090,000 outstanding shares on October 21, 1999, and this page would tell you that the stock closed at $91 on October 21, 1999. That means that IBM's total capitalization was:
1,809,090,000 shares * $91 = $164,627,190,000
In other words, if all the shares of IBM were bought by someone for $91 per share, the person would have to pay $164 billion to buy IBM. If you perform that calculation across all 3,066 companies on the NYSE and add them all up, you get a total capitalization of $15 trillion.
