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Re:When 9 Trillion dollars from Fed Reserve goes missing wha... by anamax on Tuesday January 04, 2011 @04:19PM (#2068535)
> If provide an overnight loan for you 10 times, I haven't spent $10B dollars.

No, but you had to have had $10B to transfer.

> Same if I had guaranteed $100B.

No, but someone had to believe that you had access to $10B in case the guarantee was needed.

> Save for a default, I haven't spent anything (actually I made money).

"I made money" doesn't follow. Whether or not you made money depends on the terms. And, even if you did make money, it doesn't follow that it was a good deal. (The risk may have been greater than the return. The fact that you haven't been in an accident doesn't imply that not wearing seat belts is a good idea.)

Re:When 9 Trillion dollars from Fed Reserve goes missing wha... by jonknee on Tuesday January 04, 2011 @04:21PM (#2068543)
> No, but you had to have had $10B to transfer.

No, I would have had to have just $1B (it gets tossed back and forth--with interest given to the Fed). Also, the Fed doesn't need the $1B, it can create it and then destroy it when it's deposited back. It's electronic these days, so a number is incremented and decremented in a database.

Re:When 9 Trillion dollars from Fed Reserve goes missing wha... by anamax on Tuesday January 04, 2011 @10:36PM (#2069752)
> No, I would have had to have just $1B

You're right - I misread.

> Also, the Fed doesn't need the $1B, it can create it and then destroy it when it's deposited back.

It's not quite that simple. Everything is okay until it isn't deposited back. Then there's an extra $1B in the economy.