Do most people take "printing money" literally? I assumed that it meant creation of money, not actually printing it. Of course if everyone came to get cash fr

Do most people take "printing money" literally? I assumed that it meant creation of money, not actually printing it. Of course if everyone came to get cash from the banks the fed would literally have to print physical money or the banks would default. Finally, if the fed didn't exist do you think the free market would allow banks to have such low reserve requirements? I'm guessing that the fear of bank runs and bankruptcy would significantly limit the amount they loaned (created).