What if the bank decides to keep all $1.000 and loan out $10.000? While money wasn't printed, phantom money was most definitely conjured out of thin air. And with the magic I don't see how a bank couldn't have, say, bought Disney with the phantom dollars

[–] bassomitron@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You're misunderstanding the basics of banking like the other fellow I responded to. I provided a link by the IMF that explains the fundamentals in another reply. I'll provide another one: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fractionalreservebanking.asp

Normal commercial banks cannot just print money, which is exactly what you're implying with "phantom money." The money has to come from somewhere and/or be backed by something. So no, a bank can't just magically turn $1000 into $10,000 without something securing the additional money or the extra money coming from other funds. Only the Fed (or other countries' central banks/governments) can print money on a whim.

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

I think the most generous interpretation of what they seem to be trying to explain is the "phantom plans" created from loaning loaned money.

A deposits 1k into bank Bank loans B 1k B loans C 500

There's only 1k in circulation, 500 in B's hands and 500 in C's, but there is technically 1500 in total loans.

I could be off base that this is what they're talking about, and I don't necessarily think it's all that relevant to the conversation, just spitballing.