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The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

federalreserve.gov

41–50 of 99 posts

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#41
With most of currency being digital, this change of reserve ratio requirements has almost no effect in the way banking and economy works. Added a Wikipedia reference which has more references to empirical studies.

“ Many economists and bankers now realize that the amount of money in circulation is limited only by the demand for loans, not by reserve requirements.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_creation#Credit_theory_o...

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#42
One day people are going to look back to today and wonder why we have essentially given a license to print money to a privileged group of people with close to nil accountability. First to central bankers, and now to private bankers (which collect a profit from literally creating money out of thin air and lending it out). Our entire fiat monetary system really is incredibly bizarre and borderline fraudulent when you think about it in close enough detail, and yet it is still seemingly immune from mainstream criticism.

End central banking and you've single-handedly fixed systemic wealth inequality in the United States.

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#43
post #26

Doesn't this eliminate the protections from 2008? Will this cause a run on the banks?

> Doesn't this eliminate the protections from 2008?

No, it doesn't. Broader capital requirements are still in place. This move just removes reserve requirements for certain categories of transaction accounts.

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#45
post #42

One day people are going to look back to today and wonder why we have essentially given a license to print money to a privileged group of people with close to nil accountability. First to central bankers, and now to private bankers (which collect a profit from literally creating money out of thin air and lending it out). Our entire fiat monetary system really is incredibly bizarre and borderline fraudulent when you t…

> with close to nil accountability

Bank regulation is open to be criticized. But it's far from "nil".

> First to central bankers, and now to private bankers

Money was originally printed by private parties, then by banks, and most-recently by central banks.

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#46
post #7

With the caveat that I’m by no means an economist... The table at the bottom puts this in context: reserve requirements, which have never been reduced by more than $2 billion across the economy in any year prior, are suddenly reduced by $200 billion - the entire regulatory program seems to have been unwound. Presumably this will give late banks desperately needed liquidity and ability to lend, but it also increases s…

It's completely insane that they describe this in linear terms. The effects of reducing the reserve requirement is inverse-linear with respect to the ratio. Since the money multiplier is 1/r, reducing the reserve requirement to 0 means that any dollar has an unbounded limit as to how far it can be re-lent. That is quite literally infinitely more unprecedented than a 100x bigger dislodging of the "reduction in the res…

The reserve requirement limit is purely theoretical anyway, since the Fed is obliged to pump more reserves into the system to maintain its interest rate targets when commercial banks [net] lend in excess of their current reserves anyway. The UK hasn't had a reserve requirement since 1981.

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#47
post #37

It would seem that the logical response to this announcement is go run the banks right now, before March 26, and before anyone on Fox and Friends thinks to mention to their viewers what this really means.

This would be my take on it as well. However, a pile of government printed paper may not be worth much anyway in a worst case scenario.

This is what I'm pondering at the moment. First would be the issue that this announcement is going to cause panic withdrawals (if it hasn't already) which I would guess has its own negative side-effects. Then it makes me wonder if printed paper would be worthless in a worst-case scenario anyway.

Or is this going to turn into Greece where all banks will close or limit the amount that can be withdrawn.

What a shit-show this has become

EDIT: another thing to consider is where to store all this cash if you withdraw. For those that have 6 figs in cash sitting in their banks, exposing that large sum of money in physical form poses an enormous risk (e.g. natural disasters or accidents being a big one)

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#48
post #31

I'm not an economist, but it seems like the problem is a destruction of demand, so how does increasing supply help things?

> how does increasing supply help things?

Money supply.

If you're a company who invested in a great workforce, and is getting nuked due to demand destruction, borrowing to keep paying them is a savvy long-term bet.

If you can't borrow, you'll have to let them go. That not only creates human misery. It also destroys the human capital you carefully built.

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#49
post #19

Unintended Consequences. Wow -- this sets up all sorts of moral hazard for later. And unwinding this will be extraordinarily difficult.

No it won't. Reserve ratios are commonly modified, sometimes by a decent amount. Banks have been able to move money among accounts to effectively reduce reserve requirements nearly at will. And banks have always been able to lend past the reserve requirement, as long as they soon (after the fact) borrow to cover it, usually short term via the Fed overnight lending rate.

The average person has zero idea that this happens, but it's not going to somehow be impossible (or even hard) to undo it.

Re: The Board reduced reserve requirement ratios to zero percent effective March 26

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's completely insane that they describe this in linear terms. The effects of reducing the reserve requirement is inverse-linear with respect to the ratio. Since the money multiplier is 1/r, reducing the reserve requirement to 0 means that any dollar has an unbounded limit as to how far it can be re-lent. That is quite literally infinitely more unprecedented than a 100x bigger dislodging of the "reduction in the res…

The reserve requirement limit is purely theoretical anyway, since the Fed is obliged to pump more reserves into the system to maintain its interest rate targets when commercial banks [net] lend in excess of their current reserves anyway. The UK hasn't had a reserve requirement since 1981.

> UK hasn't had a reserve requirement since 1981

Capital requirements remain in place, for both British and American banks. (As remain reserve requirements for most assets at American banks.)

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