Quote: Cookridge_Rhino "I agree with your explanation of fractional reserve banking but the OP doesnt, he (because he has misunderstood things he has read and heard) thinks that they need no money at all in their reserves in order to lend money, he thinks they literally lend as much money as they want because it all compeletely comes from nowhere.'"
Forget the fractional reserve system, thats from yesteryear.
Banks now just create money from nothing, then go into the interbank lending markets and loan the money needed to cover their reserve ratios. That's how Northern Rock was sunk, nobody would lend them the money.