QUESTION:

Hi Martin,

I have only just found you and started reading your articles this last month after your interview on … radio.. It is a pain in the Butt we are not taught any of this in school, but I still have an HUGE aversion to a fractional reserve system where a private group or cartel is allowed to create debt based money out of thin air and then lend it to the public and nations as a loan at interest where by always creating more debt in the system than available currency to repay. This is a wealth transfer back to ever holds that power it seems, but maybe I’m wrong.. It seems we should have a currency of some sorts that the public can use to transact in that does not bear interest and create a sucking motion of our wealth and production back to the banksters and some type of lending system along side that..

If the system needs to have a fractional reserve system, then ok, but who is to get these free benefits of its creation and the attaching of interest to it? A cartel of banksters? The Government? Can I just lend out currency created out of thin air myself at interest? lol

ANSWER: I understand that there are people who have spun this whole fractional banking thing into some evil conspiracy and preach that it must end without understanding that such a move would be to collapse the entire economy sending us into a Dark Age. Such an event would bring the end of civilization which is created by a synergy of people coming together – that means sharing resources including capital. The banks do not create money out of thin air with some endless supply and just keep all the profits (interest). If they keep about 8% as reserves to facilitate the normal amount of cash withdrawals, then this becomes the fractional basis of banking. End fractional banking and the entire real estate grid would collapse. They are fighting with windmills.

Let’s look at this propaganda closely. How do they create money out of thin air? A bank must have deposits and then can lend out ONLY what has been deposited. They do not just create $100 and lend you something and pocket the interest. That is just not possible. People seem to be exaggerating this whole thing to sell precious metals on the theory that only gold is tangible money and real. Nice propaganda to dupe a lot of people, but this is sophistry if not criminal fraud.

The NY Money Center banks have transformed banking into wild trading houses and they front-run their customers who are no longer cherished client relationships. They live from deal to deal and are not interested in traditional banking. This is all about the quick buck that has become transactional banking. They DO NOT systemically manipulate the precious metals. If that were true, then why bother even buying something that can never go up? This is an excuse to cover-up bad or fake analysis. The metals will rally when it is TIME, and NOT before. Everything has to be aligned to get the rally.

The first step in the evolution of banking after simply a depository service was really GIRO banking. GIRO banking simply evolved to facilitate trade. If you had and account and I had an account at the same bank, the difference between a GIRO bank and a simple depository was rather significant. The GIRO bank was a facility where I could just write you a check and transfer the money from my account to yours. Checking was a major advancement in banking.

A depository bank would mean you would have to withdraw money to then physically hand it to me since there was no ability to transfer between accounts. This presented huge problems with tangible coins, which could be counterfeit or clipped. You would have the burden of certifying each coin. Illustrated here is a coin from ancient Lydia 7th century BC with nine counter-marks by money-changers all certifying that they tested the coin.

Fractional banking emerged as it became clear that the average maximum amount of money people would demand to be withdrawn in the normal course of business was roughly 8%. This is NOT evil and it is NOT the source of all out problems. This is nonsense sold by those who are still living in the past and cannot grasp that we are no longer in a BARTER economy exchange commodities as money. Money is the total productive capacity of the people. Japan rose from the ashes without gold or commodities to the second largest economy in the world on the back of its people. China may have been buying gold AFTER it rose, but it was its people that produced and brought it wealth. Russia has gold and oil, but it has restricted its growth replacing communism with an oligarchy rather than the freedom of its people to compete and produce, which is why it did not perform as did China. Russia has the natural resources, but it MUST change philosophies or it will not survive long-term as was the fate of Spain when the natural resources from the America ran out.

Fractional banking absolutely does NOT create money out of thin air. If you deposit $100 and leave that in a savings account, the bank is paying you interest and it lends 90% of that money to another person. It is not that they are really printing money out of thin air for that would mean it does not need a deposit to begin with. That is just a gross misrepresentation. The money on deposit is LEVERAGED but not created without some monetary base.

As for those who misunderstand the issue and propose government should run the banks and decide who gets credit, well Venice had such as system and the bank was a government monopoly. That still failed for corruption. Then there was Wisselbank of Amsterdam which there too the bank failed and the city had to promise to repay since it lent itself all the money when it was supposed to be just a depository bank. It is amazing how people constantly propose the same ideas that have failed over and over again. So have a nice time Iceland – I will short the country.

This is the same nonsense spread about “paper gold” and futures are evil. The futures market has been around since Babylonian days. A farmer has the risk of growing a crop and then not knowing what the price the market will be. He sells his crop for FUTURE delivery. Yes, technically, it does not yet exist. That does not suppress the price. It creates a viable market by eliminate the risk to grow the crop. For a miner, they will not mine even gold unless they know they can sell it yes for paper money.

Even if you are buying life insurance in case you die to take care of your family we have risk of a future event in play. Your company can also insure you as a key-man. There is only one life here, but there can be multiple contracts benefiting different people in the event of your death. This too is propaganda for it is really DEATH insurance not insuring you against living forever. But they cannot sell DEATH INSURANCE so they flip it and call it LIFE INSURANCE.

Leasing gold allows someone to own it and earn money. Otherwise, gold pays no income or interest and would be a dead asset. This is why institutions cannot buy gold for they need income. Many people lease gold to own it but have to have some income from that money. This is not “paper gold” intent upon suppressing the market. Without the futures market, gold would not be traded and it would shrink from any viable international status. It would become indistinguishable from rhodium or another untradable metal.

It is NOT fractional banking that is the problem. Listen to some of these people rant and rave about fractional banking and you see how uneducated they truly are about finance. If you ended this system, the entire world economy would end. All real estate would collapse for how can there be a mortgage? You retirement fund would vanish. Nothing would exist economically. Like paper gold they usually also want to end, you would quickly see gold would lose all value if there is no market to trade. Stocks are more LIQUID than real estate BECAUSE there is a central place to trade. Eliminate “paper gold” and you eliminate the ability to trade and then gold would lose its liquidity and thus its value.

Let’s stay focused on the problem – transactional banking. The money center banks have become greedy and prefer to trade with other people’s money and constantly blow up because they are terrible traders. They blackmail government because government needs to sell its debt. This is the problem – NOT fractional banking.