“In general, I love the show. Ep23, however, was a real disappointment. You made many of the mistakes that you are always cautioning against, presented your opinion as absolute fact, offered strawman alternatives and misidentified causation.
There were some points that were somewhat valid, such as that banks do have some government subsidies, but most of those you identified aren’t them, specifically, FDIC insurance is not a subsidy; the banks pay for it. The more important issue is your supposition that banks exist essentially due to regulatory capture. There are some subtleties to the macro point but, in general, I think it’s wrong.
The systemic need and purpose of banks is liquidity. It is difficult to construct an institution that provides zero risk and nearly instant liquidity. Certainly, none of the proposed alternatives do. in fact, they couldn’t because there is a cost to holding the money. Most people aren’t especially sensitive to bank deposit interest rates but they would not be willing to pay a bank to hold their money and would likely go elsewhere which would end up being a mattress which would, in turn not only effectively take a large amount of currency out of circulation, it would also create additional incentives for theft. Part of what was missed here was how much “dead money” is in banks.
There are numerous other problems but, suffice it to say that i believe acting on the opinions expressed in this episode would lead to a far worse outcome.
Do better.”
hpostley via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
03/25/23