This report focuses on the intersection between finance and the ‘real economy’. I begin by examining how political economy approaches to money and the wider financialization literature reveal the entangled relationship between finance and broader economic practices. I then review how recent work in economic geography has used these approaches to develop understandings of the role of financial circuits in everyday economic life and the implications of this for the international financial system. This research is important because it problematizes popular and policy calls to rebalance the economic activity in favour of the ‘real economy’. I argue that this highlights the need to examine how financial circuits might be produced differently in order to develop a more sustainable financial system and associated economy.