It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich

 It is a slow day in a little Greek village.

The rain is beating down, the streets are deserted, and times are tough. Everyone is in debt, and nobody has any actual cash—they all live on credit.

On this particular day, a rich tourist from Athens arrives at the only small hotel in town.

He walks up to the hotel owner, places a €100 bill on the counter, and says, "I need a room for the night."

Before the tourist can even blink, the hotel owner grabs the €100 bill and runs down the street to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the €100 bill and rushes over to pay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the €100 bill and races to pay the feed supplier.

The feed supplier takes the money and hurries to settle his tab with the local tavern owner.

The tavern owner, who had been letting the hotel owner drink on credit for months, runs back to the hotel and slaps the €100 bill down on the counter, clearing his debt.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes back downstairs and says, "You know what? I don’t like the room. I’ll be on my way."

He picks up his €100 bill and leaves town.

Nobody earned anything. Nobody lost anything. But the entire village is suddenly debt-free.

And that, my friends, is how modern banking works.