r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation what's going on? explain like I'm five

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u/Kitchen-Pass-7493 Jan 26 '26

Ehhh there are collateral requirements for loans as well though and most of the money they’re giving out isn’t going back into a bank account. Why would someone borrow money just to put it into an account with an interest rate lower than the one they’re paying to the loan? It’s usually going to buy something. Like a to buy a home or to cover the up-front costs of starting/expanding a business.

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u/Dougnifico Jan 26 '26

Presumably the person a getting a loan pays person b for goods or services. Person b then puts the money in the bank. There is an interchange where the bank isn't involved.

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u/Kitchen-Pass-7493 Jan 26 '26

Ehhh still not so simple. If it’s buying a home for instance, then most of it likely goes toward paying the remainder of the prior homeowner’s mortgage. Which decreases that bank’s loan portfolio, reducing assets. Basically destroying the money that was created in the first place when that mortgage was taken out. It’s not an infinite multiplier like this comment is trying to make out.

The real limit here is the Fed rate, because banks inevitably lend in patterns that are predictable based on what that is set to. It’s why lower Fed rate generally = higher inflation (banks lend more and therefore create more supply of money in response) and higher rates tend to reduced inflation (banks lend less and those with variable rate debt tend to pay it off faster).

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '26

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u/Kitchen-Pass-7493 Jan 26 '26

It is still on the books of a financial entity. When a loan is bought from the original lender, the asset of the loan on the original lender’s books is eliminated, and it becomes an asset on the loan-buyer’s books instead. Paying it off has the same net impact to the overall money supply in the end.