[exratione]

And there was I thinking that the whole point of a central bank and fiat currency is so that the ruling elite can fund the things that they want to fund (typically war and standing armies, as the line items that were hardest to pull off without fiat currencies, but also graft, bread, circuses and targeted entitlements for various means ranging from rewarding and enriching key supporters to buying the grudging support of the broader populace) without causing the same level of social unrest as has historically been caused by direct confiscatory taxation or dilution of precious metal coinage.

Compare events relating to coinage, taxation, and war in the Roman era or late Medieval era versus the modern age, or versus the first well-documented Chinese era of paper currency.

There is a lot to be said for having an elite that thinks twice about going to war or enriching their immediate supporters, because raising the funds to do so will cause riots. Unfortunately those at the top can get away with far more in this era of ubiquitous use of fiat currencies, and the world suffers for it.