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by loup-vaillant 1147 days ago
Yeah, the money is real. Yeah the money has been created. But you can't start from there when explaining it to a sceptic.

And there's still is one way the money isn't real: if everyone runs to the bank to retrieve their money they can't. Not all at the same time. But they never do, so the money is real.

> This is false. FDIC is insurance. The money that is used to step in and rescue a bank is real money that comes from banks that pay insurance premiums to have their depositors' money insured.

Oh, I see. A tad more complicated than I though, but the effect is the same, so my central point remains.

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My step dad used to work in banks, and you, he, and I agree on how this all works. Interestingly though he didn't want to see it as "creating" money. He didn't quite accept the connotation, and I suspect the full consequences of fractional reserve. His exact word was that banks are authorised to transform money (which I suspect is a legal term in France).