This bpost can belong to tanbinvest or the recrec blog. I keep it in tanbinvest for now because it is about SGD currency strength, affecting my long horizon (including retirement) planning.

Currency in circulation .. is explained in [[TheEconomicsOfMoneyBankingAndFinancialMarkets]] P412 (FedReserve). Other central banks may use their own systems to calculate/report their currency in circulation. However, there is some international agreement (or standard?) as the Bank for International Settlements provides detailed statistics of the worth of banknotes and coins for 18 major currencies.

— Q: Does money printing affect currency strength?

A: For USD, [[TheEconomicsOfMoneyBankingAndFinancialMarkets]] has lots of details but I guess the Fed money printing process is equivalent to printing physical money.

Excessive money printing without _additional_ foreign reserve is dangerous, and can lead to currency depreciation.

I guess many central banks actually borrow money (by issuing bonds with legislative approval) to print its own currency.

— Q: how is the total “currency in circulation” affected by electronic banking?
A: [[TheEconomicsOfMoneyBankingAndFinancialMarkets]] has a chapter on money supply, but I haven’t read it. I believe that banks have rigorous (audited and consistent) systems to account for every penny.

Fundamentally, electronic payment is only a record of physical movement of cash and should never take place without “physical”.

(You could be a company, part of a local or central government, or another bank.) A bank would increase your account balance by $1 exactly when you deposit $1 physical cash. Things are more tricky when you deposit foreign currency (as exporter do) or when you receive electronic transfer, but I believe all changes in your account balance is backed by physical movements of physical cash.

The vault (of a central bank or a private bank) holds gold and foreign bank notes. These assets change hands upon an electronic transfer between institutions.