billion In all of my tables, I have sought an idea and the figures are only approximately true. . . . Our National debt today is approximately $276 billion, and the Congress is raising the debt limit to $280 billion, in anticipation of nuclear wars. Of course, Reserve Bank reserves and member bank credits are not actual money, transferable by cheque. They are fictitious "funds" bankers keep on their books, as basis of loans, but funds which they use to buy investment obligations. So they are "cash" to banks. And these fictitious funds cost the bankers nothing, except the trouble of keeping the people's deposits, cashing and clearing their cheques . . . the cash cost them nothing, and the clearing of the cheques, is just a bookkeeping routine, performed by underpaid men and women.
Let's look at that again. The Reserve authorities did not use cash, anyone's deposits, to pay Uncle Sam for these bonds. The Washington Reserve Bank wrote on its deposit books deposit credits to the Government, $250 billion; the Government wrote a total of $250 billion in cheques to those who worked for the Government, or sold it goods — this transferred the $250 billion to the people; the banks where these cheques were deposited (or cashed) sent the cheques to each bank's Reserve Bank, and the Reserve Bank gave the bank credit in its Reserve Fund for the cheques, all totalling $250 billion; the member banks had their reserves increased that amount, so that increased their bank funds (credits) to $1,250 billion. When the $1,250 billion has been loaned, as it could be and may have been - there is no way of MY finding out; and Congress seems not to be interested - there will appear in the vaults of the banks $1,250 billion in notes, mortgages, vendors lien notes, corporation stock and other investment obligations. The depositors are using (if they could) the deposits they got for their notes or investment obligations. So we find that there are $250 billion U.S. Bonds which are actual money; $250 billion Bank Deposits which were given the Government for the Bonds; and the $1,250 billion deposits to the credit of the people who borrowed or sold to the banks investment obligations. These three moneys, totalling $1,750 billion remain in active (or nascent)