• @Not_Alec_Baldwin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Bank profits inflate the money supply.

    If banks hold 100% of the money and lend it all out x10 (fractional reserve) and earn 1% interest, the money supply is growing by 10% per year.

    That’s inflation. All that money goes to the banks.

    Edit: that’s 1% on top of whatever they have to pay for the money from the fed, so 7% rate plus 1%, or whatever.

    That doesn’t even account for the stock market and other speculative devices.

    When business and the wealthy class get richer, they want to get even RICHER. Prices rise. Which drives record profit, which makes rich people wealthier, which causes the cycle to repeat.

    Raising interest rates is SUPPOSED to make people uncomfortable and stop spending. It’s not working yet, because literally EVERY INCENTIVE IN OUR SOCIETY is pushing people to spend spend spend.

    There is no functional market force driving down housing costs, food costs, or education costs. Unchecked capitalism can’t work.

    We just need proper incentive structures and regulation. But seeing as nobody has the guts to start figuring that out, the only lever we have is interest rates.

    So they’ll keep going up until something breaks.

    • FuglyDuck
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      31 year ago

      One obvious solution that’ll never happen is simply getting rid of fractional reserve banking.

      Make it do they have to have it, to be able to loan it

      • I don’t like all of the fuckery the banks get up to. But even I’m willing to admit that this is a Pandora’s box situation… I’m not sure we can ever go back.

        It would be like trying to restore the gold standard. Just… How?

    • @Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
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      -21 year ago

      Man / or woman ain’t wrong. System is designed to fail.

      Only way out is to destroy it and start again. To repeat the cycle