The central bank is selling short-dated notes and buying an equal number of longer-duration issues in an effort to drive down borrowing rates and boost risk.
Most nations have institutionalised a system known as fractional reserve banking, under which banks hold liquid assets equal to only a portion of their current liabilities.
In extreme cases, all significant digits of precision can be lost (although gradual underflow ensures that the result will not be zero unless the two operands were equal).
