Would you let your neighbour steal from you,then loan this money back to you at interest and be greatful for being shafted?

This is what the fractional reserve system of banking does to all people on this planet.This systems allows banks to create 9 times the amount of money they have in desposits they have in their accounts and loan it at interest to us,in the form of debt.Some of this debt money ends up in bank accounts thus adding to the debt spiral.

Prior 2008 the yearly average inflation since 1913 was 3.5%.Inflation compounds like interest,so every 10 yrs we lose 41% of the value of our currency.Who creates all this new money? If we as individuals do it,we get arrested for counterfeiting.Today the banking system steals from us by devaluing our currencies via inflation.

Since 1913 at the inception of the US Federal Reserve our currency has lost 96% of its value.This means that banks have created 25 times the amount of currency above pop increases and GDP needed to accommodate a balanced economy.Just think about how powerful it has made a few individuals who are able to pervert our economies and political processes.

Money has no intrinsic worth.It represents the productivity of the people.By letting international reserve banks create our money,by default,we are letting them own our productivity,which they then loan back to us at interest.This is why we are in so much debt.

Paul Keating should never have sold off the Commonwealth Bank.It was creating new money to equal our productivity and pop increases.Now off shore interests are creating money in their computers which represents our daily toil.

The creation of the credit card was another blow to our sovereignity.Our Govt used to create a lot of cash as the medium of exchange.Foreign Corps like VISA,American Express,Master card etc now create our currency through debt.

What is your solution to this current crisis?

Our personal debt is now $1.2 trillion up 71% in 5yrs and so for the first time is greater than our GDP.In US $ per capita our debt is $56,000,while in the US it is $44,000.Sources RBA

In 2009 debit card cash withdrawls dropped by 6.3% more than twice the rate of the previous two years.The average credit card balance is - $3,140.Total card balances outstanding is $45 billion.We have some of the most expensive real estate on the planet which in reality it over valued.Many people seem to be using the equity in their houses to maintain their living standards.

Next year we will probably see a fall in house prices and if unemployment increases due to interest rate pressures ,people could be left homeless and still in debt.

Well put Arjay and it is ironic that the first to jump up and down about printing money for infrastructure projects accept this state of affairs as the norm. And that is what it is happening - a banking license to print money.

Commonsense tells us we have to rethink traditional approaches to economics otherwise we remain subject to the whims of puppetmasters.

Professor Stephen Marglin talks much about the limits of economics and why we need to re-think many of the assumptions we take for granted.

http://www.globalissues.org/video/769/stephen-marglin-rethinking-economics

"His current research focuses on the foundational assumptions of economics, asking to what extent these assumptions are a reflection of the culture and history of the Modern West rather than a set of facts about a universal human nature."

Arjay “This is what the fractional reserve system of banking does to all people on this planet.This systems allows banks to create 9 times the amount of money they have in desposits they have in their accounts and loan it at interest to us”

Only just discovered the interest rate multiplier or whatever you chose to call it Arjay?

I was taught all about that back in 1970, when doing economics as part of my professional training

It is one reason why central banks use interest as a monetary regulator is because the exact formula is based on the reciprocal if the interest rate is the multiplier it means higher interest rate lower the multiplier and reduced bank lending aka a "Credit Squeeze".

As for homeless and still in debt

Yes, that might happen to a few who overextended but banks apply the 3C rule

Collateral (valuable property)
Capacity (income)
Credit worthiness (prime = No Defaults)

And of course they also calculate “capacity” based on applying an additional 2 % above the current lending rate
And only lend with a default insurance policy in place

That all tends to minimize the wider impacts of downturns

Now, what happened in US with sub-prime debt, where bankers were forced, by loss of licence to lend to undesirable applicants to meet an ethnic affirmative action quota, along with instead of the borrower allowed off the hook with the jingle-mail laws, thus having no incentive from an ongoing liability beyond default of mortgage -

Was the sub-primes just defaulted and sent back their house keys and left the banks with the unsupported and unsecured debt and the houses… hence the GFC

So if a few folk end-up broke and homeless, lets just say that is par for the course, just as some idiots end up with bankrupt businesses

But lots of others manage their debt, manage their lives and balance their budget quite adequately

Stern obioviously has not a clue what is unfolding right now.It won't be just a few who will lose their house.In the USA the real unemployment rate is 18%.Some places have 50% unemployment.35 million below the poverty line.Many are now forced off unemployment and are on food stamps.California is officially broke.We have higher per capita debt than the USA.You have not addressed the theft of our money through inflation ie the dilution of our currency.

Pelican,we must once again have as national bank owned by our Govt.If we use more cash this forces the mint to create more currency.Our Govts must be forced to release more lans for housing and take off their taxes/charges that make up 38% of a house/land package.

We should also consider a tax on the fraction reserve system when it creates too much money.This is system is a failure.It feeds a dervivate share market that steals from the general populace and destroys real productivity.

The best way to educate the population is through the children.They are open to new ideas and have the time to research topics on the web.So handing out pamphlets that explain simply with good web references is a cheap and effective form of communication.

*And that is what it is happening - a banking license to print money.*

Not so Pelican. We've been through all this before with Arjay, but
he just doesen't get it. What banks in fact do, is lend out money
that depositers place with them. Yup, that increases the money
supply, quite different to printing money however.

Now if Arjay and you think that banks should not be allowed to lend
out money deposited, they would simply charge you a fee for guarding
your assets and there would be no credit available.

So if you wanted to buy a house, or a car, or a business, or increase
your business etc, bad luck, pay cash or do without.

The first consequence would be mass unemployment. The second
consequence would be that the rich would become even richer.
For only those with cash could use that cash to create more cash,
by owning houses, businesses, which the rest of us could not afford.

Reserve banks have been created as they are, for good reasons.
Having politicians with their hands on the printing presses, would
be a recipee for disaster. So reserve banks are structured in a
way where they are apolitical and their job is to do what is best
for the economy as a whole, not what is best for the present party
in Govt.

What matters is this: Profits from both the Fed or the RBA and similar, are paid back to the treasuries of their respective
countries.

So Arjay really has his knickers in a twist for no good reason.