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Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

bankofengland.co.uk

41–50 of 121 posts

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#41
post #29
post #21

From the conclusion: > This article has discussed how money is created in the modern economy. Most of the money in circulation is created, not by the printing presses of the Bank of England, but by the commercial banks themselves: banks create money whenever they lend to someone in the economy or buy an asset from consumers. And in contrast to descriptions found in some textbooks, the Bank of England does not directl…

> Budget deficits can be financed through the issuance of bonds, which look a lot like loans. But they can also be financed by just printing the money. The end result is the same, money into the pockets of people, but the implications are very different. Actually, its worse than that. The treasuries are created, sold to bank and the bank immediately sells it to the Fed for cash for a nice little profit (at least in t…

Kelton has a whole chapter on this in her book The Deficit Myth.

https://www.amazon.com/Deficit-Myth-Monetary-Peoples-Economy...

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#42
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this begs the question: how come private banks can do this (create money + a matching liability, that is, with no interest), but private individuals can't? Why can't I, if I want to buy a car, not simply give myself 20,000€ cash and register a 20,000€ liability, which I will pay back in due course? The bank creates zero-cost virtual cash and then earns interest by loaning it as if it was real! This is already ques…

When banks create money with a matching liability, they face the risk that the customer will try to take the money out in cash, or transfer it to an account at a different bank. In order to accommodate this they actually have to have the cash on hand, or borrow it from another bank with interest. Likewise if you have 20,000€ on hand, or can borrow it from somewhere, you can use it to buy a car. You can then keep a me…

> they face the risk that the customer will try to take the money out in cash, or transfer it to an account at a different bank

“They face the risk” seems a huge understatement. It would be quite unusual for someone to take a loan from a bank and leave the money sitting there at the bank.

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#43
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks are regulated through the nose (in most places at most times) to make sure they don’t mess it up. The money creation is a carefully choreographed juggling act where balls can’t fall on the ground. The extra money created is effectively money someone doesn’t need right now (deposit) that can be temporarily used, and returned eventually, by someone else. When it works, it works very well, but when it doesn’t, ban…

> Banks are regulated through the nose (in most places at most times) to make sure they don’t mess it up. Eehhhhhhh........ Sounds like that isn't working out so well is it? x) With the only difference of course that if _I_ fail my obligations I don't get a taxpayer-funded bailout financed by cuts to people's salaries and pensions, instead my house gets reposessed and I go live with my kids to a homeless shelter. But…

Yeah, we’ll, the credit crunch was an enormous fuck up. I kind of blame the regulators for letting the wolves self-regulate sheep herding, though of course it was ultimately a team effort. But that was all a textbook example of regulating banks the wrong way.

> That's not true in fractional reserve banking, and we're actually well last that, we're into no-reserve banking now.

How so? In Europe at least, banks lend from their own loans (a mix of deposits, bonds and commercial papers), plus need capital at a fraction of assets (ie loans made).

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#44
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks are regulated through the nose (in most places at most times) to make sure they don’t mess it up. The money creation is a carefully choreographed juggling act where balls can’t fall on the ground. The extra money created is effectively money someone doesn’t need right now (deposit) that can be temporarily used, and returned eventually, by someone else. When it works, it works very well, but when it doesn’t, ban…

> Banks are regulated through the nose (in most places at most times) to make sure they don’t mess it up. Eehhhhhhh........ Sounds like that isn't working out so well is it? x) With the only difference of course that if _I_ fail my obligations I don't get a taxpayer-funded bailout financed by cuts to people's salaries and pensions, instead my house gets reposessed and I go live with my kids to a homeless shelter. But…

Why do you think you COULDN'T start a bank?

(And if starting a bank was a magic money-printing machine, no bank could ever need bailing out! They could bail themselves out! By definition!)

And can you go into more of why you don't think that applies to fractional or no-reserve banking? If I'm required to hold all my deposits in cash, I'd have to fund my loans through a different mechanism. Isn't lower reserve requirements precisely the means through which "money someone doesn't need right now" can be "temporarily used, and returned eventually, by someone else"?

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#45
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think the article is outdated: US, Europe, and Japan all still use fractional reserve banking to create money. The central bank controls the base money supply using tools like open market operations or quantitative easing, but the broad money supply is some multiple of the base money supply. That multiple is determined by what fraction of deposits is lent out by commercial banks in the banking system.

Banks don’t lend out deposits to they create money that is then eliminated when the debt is paid back. To create money banks need a certain amount of capital this is governed by capital requirements most of which come from the capital invested into the bank through share purchases. Many countries have no reserve requirements at all, BOE specifically doesn’t even issue them any longer.

>Banks don’t lend out deposits

Banks do lend out deposits, which is why when they fall below capital reserves as a result, they use the overnight lending facility of the Fed [1] (or similar processes in most countries) to maintain mandatory capital reserves. It leads to data like this [2] which shows the actual amount held by banks versus deposits.

[1] https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/reference-rates/obfr

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M14060USM156NNBR

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#47
post #37
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this begs the question: how come private banks can do this (create money + a matching liability, that is, with no interest), but private individuals can't? Why can't I, if I want to buy a car, not simply give myself 20,000€ cash and register a 20,000€ liability, which I will pay back in due course? The bank creates zero-cost virtual cash and then earns interest by loaning it as if it was real! This is already ques…

This is not exactly how fractional reserve banking works. I think that there is a misconception that if, for example, there is a bank regulation that allows 10% fractional reserve banking, then if a bank has $1 million in deposits (of actual cash that people gave to the bank to put in their checking accounts) the bank can make $10 million in loans, with $9 million being "created out of thin hair". In fact, if a bank…

You should read the article, because it seems you're the one with the misconception.

how it works -> "if a bank has $1 million in deposits (of actual cash that people gave to the bank to put in their checking accounts) the bank can make $10 million in loans"

not how it works -> "if a bank has $1 million in deposits it can make only $900k in loans"

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#48
post #37
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this begs the question: how come private banks can do this (create money + a matching liability, that is, with no interest), but private individuals can't? Why can't I, if I want to buy a car, not simply give myself 20,000€ cash and register a 20,000€ liability, which I will pay back in due course? The bank creates zero-cost virtual cash and then earns interest by loaning it as if it was real! This is already ques…

This is not exactly how fractional reserve banking works. I think that there is a misconception that if, for example, there is a bank regulation that allows 10% fractional reserve banking, then if a bank has $1 million in deposits (of actual cash that people gave to the bank to put in their checking accounts) the bank can make $10 million in loans, with $9 million being "created out of thin hair". In fact, if a bank…

This is right, but then the house seller now has $0.9mm in cash. When she deposits it in her bank, that bank can make another loan but only for $0.81mm and so on and so on.

The geometric sum to infinity ends up being 1/reserve_ratio; so if that's 10% in this example, the theoretical money creation is 10x.

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#49

I sometimes wonder how anything about economics can be tested when the world’s manufacturing has been outsourced to China. All of these theories rest on the fact inflation has been largely under control in the west, not because of a lack of gold standard but because almost all physical items have had zero or negative inflation for 30 years or so. All the things not “Made in China” I would say have been massively infl…

The US is a net exporter of food, and yet the price of food has significantly undershot headline inflation over 30 years.

Interesting! I don't know enough about the US agricultural system but I suspect technology plays a big part in that reduction in cost... I found this amazing raspberry picker for example! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iXJFDoKEvI&ab_channel=OxboI...

Maybe you're right and everything would just be made with machines in the West if China wasn't cheap to source things from. But then we come back round to what do you do with the bottom half of workers...

Re: Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't think a bank without deposits would get very far issuing loans." When a bank issues you a loan, it creates a deposit for exactly the same amount in your account. So what you said is true, almost by definition. But many loans are issued by entities other than banks. You can lend profitably without being a bank. (google 'nonbank lenders')

I mean that if you created a new bank, and never accepted any customer deposits, you are going to run into problems if you simply offer a bunch of loans. If your loan customer wants cash, or wants to move some of that loaned money into another institution... whatcha gonna do? Your nonbank credit card company would run into similar problems if they didn't have any income and simply were letting people buy products wit…

"I mean that if you created a new bank, and never accepted any customer deposits, you are going to run into problems if you simply offer a bunch of loans."

'Deposit-taking institution' is pretty much the original definition of a bank (see 'Banking Act 1979'). But, putting that aside...

"If your loan customer wants cash, or wants to move some of that loaned money into another institution... whatcha gonna do?"

The same thing you do every night: borrow money overnight in the interbank market. If this becomes a regular thing, liquidate some assets.

"Your nonbank credit card company would run into similar problems if they didn't have any income and simply were letting people buy products with magic printed money"

When a nonbank lender grants a loan, it cannot create money in the same way that a bank can. It can't disburse the loan without having the money on hand already. By 'on hand', I mean 'in an account at a bank'. The source of that money could be:

- (equity) investors

- interest earned from other loans

- wholesale funding (money borrowed from other lenders)

- proceeds from selling loans to other parties (directly or via securitization)

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