The low-carbon transition is capital-intensive and requires the creation of substantial amounts of finance, and a premature depreciation of existing capital. It remains unclear what the impact of the transition will be for the financial sector. Current models lack clear causal representations between systemic risk, financial network dynamics, credit creation and instability. At the heart of this issue is a century-old debate on the nature of money, finance and debt. Here, empirical foundations are developed for a complexity and complex networks theory of macroeconomics by bringing together evidence from both economic anthropology and econophysics. While evidence from economic anthropology helps the economist understand the origin, development and nature of money as liability-asset relationships between, and created by, economic agents, empirics from econophysics and complex networks analysis allow us to better understand the concept of systemic risk and financial dynamics during instabilities. These insights are brought together in a way that lays possible foundations for the development of a better understanding of the endogenous growth of financial networks, investment and economic growth.