Do We Need Central Banks? (2017)
I&#x27;m surprised that the obvious isn&#x27;t mentioned even by the &quot;opponents&quot; of the current banking system. What increases the risk is that banks create investments without safety backups and what destroys economic growth is the huge bonuses they take out of these investments.<p>Maybe it&#x27;s because I played poker in the past that I can intuitively see it? In poker usually players play against each other in a zero sum game. The best takes the biggest piece of the cake. But when you play in a Casino it will take a &quot;rake&quot;, meaning a tax from big payouts. Usually on higher stake games that doesn&#x27;t matter much, but on lower level stakes the average percentage of rakes is so high, that even the best players can&#x27;t make a profit. Everybody will lose, no matter his skill.<p>And since the banking system got more and more deregulated they paid themselves higher and higher bonuses. That means even if you are the best investor today, as long as you pay banking fees it&#x27;s likely you are paying all your profit plus some more, considering a normal 5-digit yearly income.<p>Sometimes I wonder if in fact in this system the best approach is to borrow a lot of money that you know you can&#x27;t pay back and hope that for some lucky coincidence you are not put into private bankruptcy, maybe keeping yourself afloat by borrowing more money to pay off fees&#x2F;interest on old debt.