John Searle explains fiat currency

The whole lecture is a good one called Logical Structure of the Society.

But in this part 3 of the lecture he explains “status function” using paper money as an example of things which exist as residues of their former function. It would be interesting to elaborate on the point that the Federal Reserve is an institution (with a mythology and assumed function) that requires hardly any state violence to sway belief in its legitimacy. One could almost argue the way Molyneux and others have: this state function is almost a broken system of anarchy.

He gets to it at about the 5 or 6 minute mark, but be sure to watch the entire clip or the entire lecture if you have the time and interest.

He also mentions limited liability corporations later in part 5 on a similar note. But it’s hard to tell what he believes politically. He seems a bit more honest at least and almost leads to libertarian conclusions (Searle also is a bit of a real radical in academia for many of his differing beliefs).