Reading:
But so far only the first chapter, and I am still withholding taking a position. He does paint a very dark picture of our entire economic system. Mostly it just comes down to having fiat currency, and all the many ways in which our currency gets multiplied in the banking system, and just how very little is backing this. And he shows how it all works to benefit the rich, not people who need to work for a living.
Gordon White's views may be similar to those of Robert T. Kiyosaki, though this is certainly not someone I support in any way.
Departing from any of these books, by my own observation one thing has definitely changed. It used to be that banks paid the maximum interest allowable by law, 5.75% for banks and 6% for savings and loans. And then in the late 70's and early 80's there was that era of extreme inflation. This was when many decided to no longer keep their money in banks. But now that that extreme inflation is long gone, people use banks, but the banks don't really pay much interest. Why?
Well maybe the answer is that they no longer need our money. They can be merciless with fees. But maybe they have another source of money to lend out? If they get enough interest money, why should they need account holders? So I'm guessing that this new cash flow source would be the credit card industry. As unsecured loans, the interest will be higher. But most of all, it is just how much of our commerce goes through the credit card system, the sheer scale of it. From this, banks must be able to get what they need, and so competing for depositor accounts by offering interest, is just not important to them.
I've read that they call people who pay off their cards so they never have to pay any interest, "freeloaders".
I guess they want to offer some trivial interest, because maybe there is still a distinction between demand deposits, and those which can be delayed. With zero interest checking, at least how it had been, they were supposed to give you all of your money anytime you asked for it, and the required cash reserve was 20% of these demand deposits. But they were not required to have anything for interest bearing accounts. Though I've never seen this used, they can delay withdrawal requests by as much as 30 days. So maybe today, to avoid adding to this cash reserve requirement, and to be able to hold onto that 30 days option, they still want to offer interest, even though it is trivial. They can offer interest, and still recoup that money with fees applied opportunistically.
And then I also read that the law allows them to count US Treasury Bills as 100% safe, and so they can use these to meet the cash reserve ratio. All very interesting.
Also explains that Newt Gingrich and Alan Greenspan altered the calculation of the inflation index, so that now it basically means whatever they want it to mean.
Lots of circulating money of various types is being created. But the system is designed to benefit speculators and the rich, not people who work for a living.
Quoting here from Gordon White, page 40, when Kodak was at the height of its power it had market capitalization of $28 billion, and employed 140,000 people, all of whom could afford cars and housing and families. When instagram was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars, it had thirteen employees and had not made a single cent in revenue.
page 38, in 20% if today's American families everyone is unemployed.
page 36, Sixty percent of Americans say they have less than $25,000 saved for retirement and 56 percent of retirees are still in debt when they retire.
SJG
investopedia.com investopedia.com investopedia.com
This gives some explanations of the money definitions. But I believe that there are some which include available revolving credit: en.wikipedia.org
Oedipus the King, 1984 version youtube.com
Romeo and Juliet (1968) First Kiss youtube.com
Nino Rota youtube.com
Credit Card Debt weeklyfinancialsolutions.com
All 24 James Bond Theme Songs youtu.be
No one gives a fuck.