[zinkem]

I don't think it quite works this way... if you deposit $1000, the bank isn't required to keep $1000 on hand, so with your 1/30 ratio, it means they would hold onto about $34 and loan out the rest with interest.

I am definitely not an expert on banking.

[EliRivers]

You're right in the first step; we can only end up with the 30000 dollars if the money is deposited and relent several times ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_reserve_banking#Exam... ). The example uses a single bank, but given that all the money goes through various banks as people borrow it and put it somewhere, I could still expect my 1000 dollar deposit to end up in aggregate as a 30000 dollar loan.