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In December 1994, a man in Ohio decided to deposit all of the 8 million pennies he had been saving for nearly 65 years. (His deposit weighed over 48,000 pounds!) With a reserve requirement of 15 percent, how did his deposit change the lending capacity of his bank? How did his deposit change the lending capacity of the banking system?

User Rebellion
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Final answer:

The man's deposit of 8 million pennies changed the lending capacity of his bank and the banking system due to the reserve requirement. The bank would need to hold 15% of the total deposit as reserves, increasing the reserves and decreasing the lending capacity. The deposit would also decrease the lending capacity of the banking system as a whole.

Step-by-step explanation:

The man's deposit of 8 million pennies would change the lending capacity of his bank and the banking system because of the reserve requirement. The reserve requirement is the amount of funds that banks must hold as reserves and not lend out. In this case, with a reserve requirement of 15%, the bank would need to hold 15% of the total deposit as reserves. So, the man's deposit of 8 million pennies would increase the reserves of the bank by 15% of that amount.

To calculate the change in lending capacity, we need to determine the amount that can be lent out. The remaining amount after applying the reserve requirement can be used for lending. So, in this case, the bank would keep 15% of 8 million pennies as reserves, which is 1.2 million pennies. The remaining 6.8 million pennies can be lent out, thus increasing the lending capacity of the bank by that amount.

Regarding the banking system, when a bank holds reserves, it reduces the lendable funds available to the banking system as a whole. Therefore, the man's deposit of 8 million pennies as reserves in his bank would decrease the lending capacity of the banking system by that amount.

User Stimmot
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