But they don't create deposit accounts out of thin air.
Sure they do. "Banks create money when they lend the rest of the money depositors give them.
Lending out deposits creates new money out of deposits, not out of thin air.
If your claim were true, they'd have no need of deposits.
Actually, there really isn't a need for deposits, because the bank actually lends you money based on your signature on the note. It puts the note on the assets side of the ledger, because it produces income, and puts the bank credit it put in your account on the liabilities side, because they might (note, MIGHT) have to actually come up with some retained capital some day to cover it. But probably not. What the reserve requirement is is just another way to drive small and medium sized banks out of business, so the bigger banks can take over their assets and leave their liabilities to the FDIC(and ultimately, to the taxpayers). Ever notice that when little banks get in trouble, they get closed, while the biggest banks get bailed out (too big too fail)? What are you missing?
Another silly claim. I have a $20 bill in my hand, who do you imagine is paying interest on it?
The guy it was originally lent to, of course.
I get $20s all the time from the bank, they get them straight from the Fed, nobody borrowed them. Try again?
Now you're just being silly. Of course someone borrowed them. How do you think our money is created? Either the federal government borrows from the Fed (which literally poofs it out of nothing based on entering the purchased treasuries on the asset side of the ledger), or you and I borrow into existence from commercial banks or the favored commercial banks borrow it from the Fed.
One day the light will dawn on you that banks are a special class of corporate person that's allowed to lend money it doesn't have
But they don't lend money they don't have, or else they'd have no need to lend your checking account deposits.
Ok, if you insist on thinking that way, let me put it another way. You work hard and save $100 and put it in the bank. Now the bank takes your $100, pays you a piddling 0.5%, and then loans out $90 to someone else at 6%, who now has to work hard to pay back that loan plus interest. Nice margin, ain't it? For what? For telling you that you can have your money
at any time, meanwhile 90% has actually been loaned out, and if you and depositors that hold more than 10% of the deposits at the bank want it, they CANNOT pay and have to close their doors.
Of course, you'll say, "The FDIC will cover all the deposits!". And if enough banks fail, the FDIC goes to... wait for it....
the TAXPAYERS to cover the bank's losses.
This doesn't seem like a screwed up system, made for the benefit of the large banks?
What's the money multiplier on a time deposit? (Hint: Look up 'reserve requirement')LOL!
Why, don't you know?
I know, don't you?
Ok, I'll tell you. Since the reserve requirement is close to 0%, the theoretical money multiplier approaches, of course, infinity if the proceeds from the loan end up in a bank somewhere as a CD.
Crap, doesn't it bother you in the least that banks are allowed by law to multiply our money and make profits from interest on it, instead of the government issuing silver certificates or even United States Notes that bear no interest charges?