Posts Tagged ‘interest’

As another nation, Ireland, now peers into the abyss of economic chaos, once again governments are being called upon to bail out the banking industry. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Of course it does . We have been hearing this tune for the past couple of years, perhaps the most loudly in the U.S. where those bastions of our economy like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and many more were once facing oblivion and financial Hell. A fate, perhaps, well deserved – but avoided by the intercession of our government. This act of semi-divine intercession is about to be repeated in Europe as that which must not come to pass is prevented from coming to pass.

Of course, I am referring to the collapse of the banking industry in Ireland. The current Irish government, similar in philosophy to the Bush/Cheney Republicans of the U.S., enjoyed the ride while they could. The run up in housing prices, the run up in wages, the run up in credit. It was all a bubble, no different from America’s bubble and equally unrecognized by the Republican economic philosophers at the time. Everyone thought it could go on for ever, except for a few economists. America had its Cassandra economist, Roubini.  Ireland had its Cassandra, McWilliams. Both were right. They called the collapse long in advance, but neither government will admit it, and neither will seek the advice of these bright economists to this day.  Why? We can only wonder.

Here’s another “why”. Why did the U.S. government feel the need to bail out the banks and why does the European Union feel the same? Does anyone know how to spell oligarchy? We are led to believe that the banks are the sine qua non of our economy. The loss of our banks would spell doom for civilization as we know it. Really? Just the banks, I suppose.  Oh no,wait. General Motors too. We couldn’t live without them either. But what about the thousands of individuals who lost their homes? What about the millions who are out of work? Do we not need them also? Apparently not. At least not with the same sense of urgency as the banks.

So let’s take a look at the banks. What, in essence, do they actually do? Well, at their core, they are a source of money. They make loans that people and businesses need in order to carry on their lives. But how does that work, you say? Here’s an example. Suppose old J.P. Morgan had a lot of money (which he did) and he decided to use that money to open a bank (which he did). You go into his bank and you borrow $1,000. Great! Now you only have to pay it back in easy installments of $49.99 for a period of about twenty – two months. Twenty-two? Wait, shouldn’t it be about twenty? Ah, we’re forgetting the interest of about $100, aren’t we? See, you borrow $1,000 but you have to pay old J.P. back $1,100. That’s how he makes money. As Ebenezer Scrooge said, “It’s business.”

But, here’s where the magic comes in: After you pay back old J.P. his money plus interest, he pockets his profit and then what does he do? He loans out that same $1,000 again! Yes! Isn’t that amazing? J.P. can loan out the same money over and over again and make money each time he does so, and his $1,000 never wears out! The best thing for old J.P. is that he doesn’t have to do any work to make money. He doesn’t produce a product, he doesn’t farm any land, he doesn’t build anything, he doesn’t even sell anything. Being a banker has to be just about the best job in the world because you don’t have to work to make money! Even better, bankers make more money than anybody and if they screw up and made stupid loans where they don’t get paid back, the government gives them all the money they lost so they can start lending all over again.

Now imagine you were a banker – like those Payday loan guys. You could loan out money  at $300% interest and get it back in a week! Or, what about if you were a different kind of banker – a credit card banker? You could loan money at 30% interest and it would take years and years for people to pay you back – maybe even a lifetime. Of course you would get your principal back pretty soon, but the poor credit card holder will be paying interest for a semi-eternity. But that is the beauty of the system – you can then loan out the original amount over and over again! And you don’t have to take risks like building televisions or cars that might not sell, or refrigerators that might be defective and people want their money back. No, banking is the ideal business for making tons of money – and the best thing of all is that our governments won’t let you fail! Who could want anything more?

How about the American people? Wouldn’t we want something more, something different? One might think so, but I don’t hear a lot of people complaining about our banking system. I guess that’s because if we change anything it would make us communist or something even worse – just like with health care, and public schools. Still, I have to wonder…why can’t our government run the entire banking system like a utility?  Do we really need privately owned banks that produce no tangible product and charge the highest interest rates possible? Why can’t we just get loans from a government bank at 0% interest? Why not? It would be our money anyway – you know: our tax money. Isn’t that a good use for our tax dollars? If the government, via the Federal Reserve, can print all the money it wants and then give it to the banks at extremely low interest rates, why can’t the government do the same thing for the citizens and eliminate the middlemen bankers who bleed us and our economy while doing no productive work at all? Is it really so un-American to even think about a redo for America’s banking system? Think about it….

Why wouldn’t it work?

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