[kqr]

Well, you make it sound like there's a limited number of dollar notes and the bank will refuse your deposit/loan if they don't have enough notes lying around to make the fractional requirements.

In reality, they will accept your deposit/loan (as long as it makes business sense) with no regard for how many notes they have lying around. If that puts them over the edge of the fractional requirements, they'll just go to the Fed/Treasury, who will swing their wand and write in additional (digital) reserves for the bank.

It is mainly all digital at this point.

[reedjosh]

> they'll just go to the Fed/Treasury, who will swing their wand and write in additional (digital) reserves for the bank.

Pretty sure that's true for larger institutions and lending between themselves, but not for your everyday accounts. They must go to fed member banks themselves to ask for the loans.

[bun_at_work]

This simply isn't how the financial system works. The bank will only loan out amounts based on what they hold in reserve. Asking the Fed/Treasury to "swing their wand around" isn't really close to what happens. Also, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury are different entities.

They don't just "print money" for banks arbitrarily.

[kqr]

Printing money for banks arbitrarily is exactly what they do -- what they have to do, if they want to have any chance at meeting their target overnight rate. (Which they are.)

Demand for money comes from the market and is not very flexible, and certainly not under anyone's control. Lenders will meet the demand for money at ever increasing prices (i.e. higher overnight rates) unless money gets printed arbitrarily.

[spiralx]

Banks literally create money by lending, here's a good overview from the Bank of England:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-...