22:54
Faizan
Most people are convinced that private banks are responsible, or at least mostly responsible, for the current economic crisis. The truth is that the crisis is the outcome of the policies followed by the political systems of the U.S.A., the E.U. and China. But the purpose of this document is not to explore the cause of the crisis but rather to explain in very simple words, why private banks are not at all responsible for the crisis, since they cannot "create" money. Even though I have postgraduate studies in economics I am not a specialist, and this document is the knowledge I gathered in an attempt to answer my own questions. Moreover English is not my first language and you will have to excuse my syntax.
To show that private banks cannot "create" money, is very important since excessive money creation in the U.S.A., the E.U. and China, was one of the main causes of the current crisis. Equally important is to explain why excessive money creation is always and everywhere a government act. What happened in reality is that excessive money creation was simply used to accommodate the unsustainable fiscal policies followed for years by many countries. Unfortunately it is much easier to notice the private banks credit expansion with the abundance of cheap credit, and the resulting bubbles, and much harder to realize that it was state policies and laws that dictated such expansions and led to bubble creation.
Since the average person is well aware of the credit expansion and the inflationary money of the pre-crisis era, it is not unreasonable for him to assume that the cause of the crisis is the "uncontrollable" and "unstable" private banking sector. But if a person is mistakenly convinced that the private banking sector is responsible for the crisis, a very reasonable response would be to ask for more government regulation. Wouldn't that be the most natural response? I therefore believe that it is of great importance for the general public to realize that private banks cannot create inflationary money. Only governments can do so by introducing relevant laws as I explain below.
In order to do so, I use various economic examples to show that private banks cannot "create" money. First I use an example where private banks issue their own bank notes and there is no central bank. In the second example private banks still issue their own bank notes, but there is also central bank that only keeps the private banks' gold at its vault, and clears their transaction. In the final example which is very realistic, there is a central bank that issues bank notes, which keeps at its vault all the gold, and that clears the transactions between private banks. But the bank notes it creates are still backed by gold. I show that in all cases private banks cannot create money. Then I explain why it is only the government that can create money, and I show how and why it does so. At the final part of the document I explain why conspiracy theories about central banks are not true.
But first of all, what do we mean by "inflationary money"? What do we mean by "excessive money creation"? The best description in my opinion is the following: "Inflationary money refers to an increase in the supply of money that is not matched by an increase of equal value in production". For example there is an economy with 2 tomatoes and 2 dollars, and each tomato costs 1 dollar. A third dollar is now created, that is not matched by the production of a third tomato. Therefore the price of each tomato increases to 1.5 dollars, which means that the new dollar was inflationary. This is actually a way for the issuer of the third dollar to tax the 2 existing tomatoes.
To show that private banks cannot "create" money, is very important since excessive money creation in the U.S.A., the E.U. and China, was one of the main causes of the current crisis. Equally important is to explain why excessive money creation is always and everywhere a government act. What happened in reality is that excessive money creation was simply used to accommodate the unsustainable fiscal policies followed for years by many countries. Unfortunately it is much easier to notice the private banks credit expansion with the abundance of cheap credit, and the resulting bubbles, and much harder to realize that it was state policies and laws that dictated such expansions and led to bubble creation.
Since the average person is well aware of the credit expansion and the inflationary money of the pre-crisis era, it is not unreasonable for him to assume that the cause of the crisis is the "uncontrollable" and "unstable" private banking sector. But if a person is mistakenly convinced that the private banking sector is responsible for the crisis, a very reasonable response would be to ask for more government regulation. Wouldn't that be the most natural response? I therefore believe that it is of great importance for the general public to realize that private banks cannot create inflationary money. Only governments can do so by introducing relevant laws as I explain below.
In order to do so, I use various economic examples to show that private banks cannot "create" money. First I use an example where private banks issue their own bank notes and there is no central bank. In the second example private banks still issue their own bank notes, but there is also central bank that only keeps the private banks' gold at its vault, and clears their transaction. In the final example which is very realistic, there is a central bank that issues bank notes, which keeps at its vault all the gold, and that clears the transactions between private banks. But the bank notes it creates are still backed by gold. I show that in all cases private banks cannot create money. Then I explain why it is only the government that can create money, and I show how and why it does so. At the final part of the document I explain why conspiracy theories about central banks are not true.
But first of all, what do we mean by "inflationary money"? What do we mean by "excessive money creation"? The best description in my opinion is the following: "Inflationary money refers to an increase in the supply of money that is not matched by an increase of equal value in production". For example there is an economy with 2 tomatoes and 2 dollars, and each tomato costs 1 dollar. A third dollar is now created, that is not matched by the production of a third tomato. Therefore the price of each tomato increases to 1.5 dollars, which means that the new dollar was inflationary. This is actually a way for the issuer of the third dollar to tax the 2 existing tomatoes.
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