A staggering ATM receipt - and a great teaching tool!

If I accidentally left my ATM receipt in the machine, the next person using the machine would probably pity my low bank balance. Not so for the person who found a receipt in an East Hampton (USA) machine….

The receipt (pictured below) indicates that after the $400 withdrawal, the customer still had US$99.86 million left in his (or her) savings account!

If it is accurate, it is a great example of opportunity cost and the demand for money. Is it possible that the person wanted to use it to purchase goods and services (and thus be transactions demand) or possibly in case of an emergency (precautionary demand). These seem unlikely and it would be an interesting class exercise to work out how much interest they are losing per day by having it in a savings account.

The article, found here gives a possible suspect as the owner of the money, but he is indignant, saying that he would never be so irresponsible as to leave $100 million in a savings account - at least he understands opportunity cost!