No. Money is created all the time.

Here's a simple example: Imagine there exists a person named Alice who has some money. We'll say it's $100 just to give it a number. Alice goes to the bank and deposits her money into an account.

Now, let's examine closely just what this means: First, Alice in some way gives the bank $100. This could mean she physically hands a bank teller $100 in currency. Or should could give the bank teller a check drawn against an account at a different bank. Or she could perform a wire transfer between another bank and this bank. We have many ways to move money around, and Alice can take advantage of any of them. The point here is that somehow Alice gives to the bank $100.

The bank takes Alice's $100 and credits it to her account, and in return promises Alice to give her that $100 back any time she asks for it. That's the bank's end of the deal. Alice gives the bank her money, and the bank promises to return it to her whenever she asks for it. (In fact, there may be specific rules to which Alice agrees that determine when and how she can ask for her money, from "there are no rules, you can have it literally any time you ask" up to limits on how much she can withdraw how often; the law permits banks to offer different kinds of accounts with different kinds of rules as a way to let banks manage their liquidity, which is a fancy word that means "cash on hand." But for sake of simplicity, we'll say that Alice has deposited her money into what's called a "demand deposit" account, which means she can ask for it back any time she wants and the bank is obliged to give it to her.)

Now Alice goes away, her business with the bank completed. She will not enter into our story again.

But before we go on, let's take a moment to look at the bank's books: The bank now has $100 in money that was given to them by Alice; this is an asset. But the bank also has a $100 liability to Alice, in the form of the bank's promise to return her money to her if she asks for it. The bank's net worth, then, is exactly zero: A $100 asset less a $100 liability is zero. The bank's books balance, in other words.

(In reality two things are necessarily true: First, the bank has many more things on its ledger than just Alice's account. And second, the bank is required by law to have a positive net worth at all times. This is called solvency. The bank is required by law to meet certain criteria for solvency at all times; if the bank fails to remain solvent, it's said to have failed, and a government agency steps in and manages the failure of the bank in such a way that the bank's customers are only minimally inconvenienced. In this example, I'm deliberately leaving out all the stuff about bank solvency specifically to keep things simple because what we're talking about here is money creation, not bank solvency. Bank solvency is a given.)

So again, the bank's books balance: A $100 asset in the form of the money Alice deposited, and a $100 liability in the form of the bank's promise to Alice. The important thing is this: The total amount of money that exists in our little story is $100. No other money exists in our story.

Now along comes Bob. Bob is a baker; he runs a bakery. He wants to grow his business by buying a new oven. He's found a seller who's willing to sell him an oven for $50 — let's call him Charlie — but he doesn't have that much cash right now. What he does have, though, is a profitable business. So he comes to the bank with a proposition: He asks the bank to lend him $50 so he can buy this new oven. In return, he promises to pay the bank back the $50 over time, using part of the profits from his business.

The bank manager looks over the details of Bob's proposition with some care. After deliberating, the bank manager decides that this offer looks like a good idea, and agrees to lend Bob the $50.

Again, let's go slowly here and look at exactly what happens. The bank has $100 on hand; we said that before. That $100 came from Alice when she deposited her money. So the bank has the money to lend to Bob. The bank takes $50 of that money they have on hand and they give it to Bob; this might be $50 in currency given to him by a bank teller, or it might be a check in the amount of $50 drawn on the bank, or it might be a wire transfer, or whatever. Again, there are many ways to move money around, and Bob and the bank agree to use whichever one is most convenient.

What does the bank get in return? The bank gets Bob's promise to repay the loan, under the terms upon which they both agreed. Say, five dollars a month for ten months, or whatever.

So Bob walks out of the bank with $50, which he takes to Charlie. He gives Charlie the $50; Charlie gives Bob the oven.

Now let's audit our little story again: The bank still has a $100 liability to Alice; they are still obliged to give her any or all of her money if and when she comes asking for it. But what about the bank's assets? Well, the bank still has $50 left of the $100 that Alice deposited … but now the bank also has a loan from Bob worth $50. That's an asset too. It's just not a liquid asset. If Alice comes back to the bank and says "I would like my $100 please," the bank can't say "Okay, here's $50, and for the other $50 go talk to Bob." But the bank could say "Sure, here's $50 and just a sec," then go sell Bob's loan to another lending institution for $50, then give that $50 to Alice. So the bank is covered; the bank's books balance. They have $100 in liabilities (Alice's account), and $100 total in assets ($50 in money plus a loan worth $50).

But wait. We're not done. Charlie also has $50. He got that $50 from Bob, who borrowed it from the bank. That means the total amount of money in our story is now $150.

We just created $50. "Out of thin air," some might say, but that's not really true. We created the $50 out of Bob's labor and ingenuity. The new $50, the $50 we just created, exist now because Bob has promised to do enough work over the next ten months to pay the bank $5 per month. (Or whatever the terms of the loan happened to be.) In other words, we created money now out of work done in the future.

This is the fundamental principle on which all economics rests: Wealth is created by the movement of capital. In this example, Bob needed capital — that is to say, a sum of money right now that he meant to invest in his business — in order to facilitate his future labors. His access to that capital, through borrowing, is what allowed him to do those future labors which is what let him create that new wealth.

So long story short? No, we create money all the time, every day.