• TrickDacy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    10 months ago

    You are incorrect. Banks do create money from nothing. And I don’t know if it’s unlimited but I’m not sure why it needs to be unlimited to feel weird and/or unfair.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      That is not true. This is typically how bank loans work: You make an account at a bank and deposit, say, $1000. Before 2020, the Fed would require the bank to retain something like 10% of that $1000 (just using 10% in this example, I haven’t looked up what the ratio was pre-2020). So they’d deposit $100 of your cash to keep on hand and could then loan out the other $900 to those seeking a loan.

      However, the Fed set that reserve ratio to 0% in 2020, which is idiotic in the long-term and also likely a main contributor several banks collapsed in 2022/2023 as the Fed started raising interest rates (I’m no economic expert by any means, so I could be wrong on the main contributing factor).

      I think you’re mixing up regular banks with the federal reserve, who definitely can just print money out of thin air.

      • unrelatedkeg@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        What if the bank decides to keep all $1.000 and loan out $10.000? While money wasn’t printed, phantom money was most definitely conjured out of thin air. And with the magic I don’t see how a bank couldn’t have, say, bought Disney with the phantom dollars

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          You’re misunderstanding the basics of banking like the other fellow I responded to. I provided a link by the IMF that explains the fundamentals in another reply. I’ll provide another one: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fractionalreservebanking.asp

          Normal commercial banks cannot just print money, which is exactly what you’re implying with “phantom money.” The money has to come from somewhere and/or be backed by something. So no, a bank can’t just magically turn $1000 into $10,000 without something securing the additional money or the extra money coming from other funds. Only the Fed (or other countries’ central banks/governments) can print money on a whim.

          • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            I think the most generous interpretation of what they seem to be trying to explain is the “phantom plans” created from loaning loaned money.

            A deposits 1k into bank Bank loans B 1k B loans C 500

            There’s only 1k in circulation, 500 in B’s hands and 500 in C’s, but there is technically 1500 in total loans.

            I could be off base that this is what they’re talking about, and I don’t necessarily think it’s all that relevant to the conversation, just spitballing.

          • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            10 months ago

            You clearly didn’t read. After 20 seconds this page didn’t load, but doesn’t matter… It’s pretty obvious you don’t care about facts so I can’t imagine you understood or read it yourself