Is the Federal Reserve Printing Unbacked Currency?

We've been off the gold standard for a long time and since 2008, the Federal Reserve has been significantly expanding the money supply. Why do you think that's so? I don't know. But even now, given how large the expansion of the money supply was, it still seems as though the inflation ought to be larger than it is currently. Can you tell us a bit about free banking? Sure. Free banking is a system where private firms are allowed to issue currency or whole deposits checking accounts essentially.