Posts by Mark Richardson87

You have to realize that aggressive monetary expansion is exactly what kept the ultra-wealthy afloat. Their net worth basically got sliced in half right when the crisis hit. If the Fed hadn't started printing money, their wealth would be way lower today and the wealth gap wouldn't look the way it does.

This is ridiculous. You’re talking about people whose wealth was supposedly "nearly halved" at the start of the crash, but here's the kicker: those same people are the ones who decided to print the money. And they didn't just print free cash—they printed debt-based money with higher interest rates this time around. It's the same crowd.

When you crunch all the numbers, wealth was lost during this crisis.

Real wealth can't just disappear. It only changes hands.
The "wealth" people claim was lost in the crisis was nothing but virtual numbers on a screen. It was treated like real value only because the big economic players and major agencies set those virtual prices specifically to extract actual, physical profit and real value from the system.

Gregory Williams7 said:Honestly, I find it hard to believe you two are still debating this...
If this is such a grievance for you, my only suggestion is to stop using money altogether. Just quit using it and live your life that way.

Personally, I am perfectly fine with the interest rates offered on my savings accounts. I appreciate seeing my capital grow over time without having to put in any extra manual labor. It works for me, and I have no intention of changing it.
Where that money originates doesn't interest me. I certainly don't need explanations from conspiracy theorists. I simply recognize that this system has functioned this way for an incredibly long time and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I intend to take advantage of it.

The fact that someone took out a loan they cannot repay and is now complaining that the system is impractical—when it actually functions perfectly every single day—is solely their own problem. It is time to get serious.

It's pretty obvious why you're defending this theory. You're trying to protect the banks and the bankers, even though deep down you probably know the crash will be just as painful as it was during the old failures like Ljubljana Bank. You're just comforting yourselves with the hope it won't happen in your lifetime. I don't know if you have kids or grandkids, but isn't that a little selfish?
Besides, greed usually beats logic for most people, including "smart" people. Look at Sanders—I'm sure he never once stopped to think about what he was doing to his children or his future grandchildren. Regarding your precious interest: did you know that if you and every other citizen tried to withdraw just 20% (say, $3 billion) of the total savings held in US banks (roughly $15 billion) within a single month, those banks would collapse instantly? Maria Thomas48 explained it perfectly: the cash you put in the bank is basically just an obligation reserve held by the Federal Reserve, representing roughly 9x the amount of issued debt or commercial loans. And since the Federal Reserve is under the thumb of the European Central Bank, your "savings" are technically yours by contract only. In reality, they could take it or refuse to pay you at any given moment.