Coronavirus

[Mike T]

With regard to banks producing money out of thin air, this is a good article, which explains that they don't. Banks have to hold healthy assets as well as Sterling reserves.

https://voxeu.org/article/banks-do-n...y-out-thin-air

As it concludes, if banks were indeed able to create money out of nothing, why would we need to bail them out?

We all know about QE, the Bank of England, The Fed and ECB have all done it and will continue to do so, especially now. But central banks buying bonds from institutions is not the same as printing money to finance expenditure. The debt is not eliminated remains on their Balance Sheet. But even this is likely to cause inflation if it gets out of control.

What country has printed money specifically to fund expenditure without causing inflation?

All countries print money all the time. When you spend £10 on your credit card, that money is created out of thin air, it does not come from savings. But at the same time an obligation to pay it back is created - borrowing from the future.
Money is not a commodity, it is a social construct - credit/debt is how all money is created in the first place - but obligations are created with it. Again from Pettifor: " ... a well developed monetary system can finance very big projects, far exceeding an economy's savings." " .. the Bank of England published 2 articles in 2014 ... to make clear that most money in the modern economy is 'printed' by private commercial banks making loans ..." and so on.