And these transactions add up to quite a lot - on average more than $ billion per day in the "wholesale" systems last year, and about $ billion per day in the "retail" systems. The numbers of transactions are also striking - only a little over 4,000 per day in the wholesale systems, but more than 4 million per day in the retail systems.
The US Federal Reserve has recently led the way in this direction by saying that it will keep interest rates low as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 per cent, and in the process, is willing to tolerate inflation slightly above its long-run target.