The fractional reserve system is a scam

Hamoon Soleimani
2 min readMay 2, 2024

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The fractional reserve banking system is a paradoxical construct that exposes the deeply entrenched power imbalance between the financial elite and the masses. By mandating minuscule reserve requirements for banks, the system essentially grants these institutions a license to create money from thin air, leveraging infinitesimal backing into vast expansions of credit and debt. This alchemical privilege bestowed upon the banking sector stands in stark contrast to the financial constraints imposed upon ordinary citizens, who must maintain substantial reserves to navigate life’s vicissitudes.

This dichotomy exemplifies the perverse asymmetry woven into the fabric of modern finance, where risk is privatized for the benefit of a select few, while the consequences of their profligate practices are socialized and borne by the populace at large. The doctrine of “too big to fail” has transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy, enabling a moral hazard of epic proportions, wherein the imprudent actions of financial titans are backstopped by taxpayer-funded bailouts, insulating them from the repercussions of their own recklessness.

This skewed paradigm has effectively created a caste system, with bankers occupying the uppermost echelons, their fortunes secured by a regulatory framework that shields them from the vagaries of the free market they ostensibly champion. Meanwhile, the masses are consigned to a perpetual state of financial servitude, their hard-earned wealth siphoned away to subsidize the excesses of a privileged few, who have co-opted the very mechanisms intended to safeguard the public trust.

  • The fractional reserve system is a scam. Banks create money out of thin air, lending it out at interest, and pocketing the difference. It’s a legalized form of counterfeiting, and it’s the root of our economic problems.
  • Bank bailouts are a slap in the face. When banks gamble and lose, they get bailed out with taxpayer money. Meanwhile, ordinary people who lose their jobs or homes get nothing. It’s a system designed to reward the rich and punish the poor.

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Hamoon Soleimani

Civil Engineering student, Interested in Linux, FOSS, Quant, ML. part-time writer.