CHILDREN are sometimes reassured that new siblings arrive via friendly storks. The reality is messier. Money creation is much the same. The “stork” in this case is the central bank; many think it transfers money to private banks, which act as intermediaries, pushing the money around the economy. In reality, most money is created by private banks. They generate deposits every time they make a loan, a process central banks can influence but not control. That alarms some, who worry that banks use this power heedlessly, thereby stoking disruptive booms and busts.
Campaigners in many rich countries want to strip private banks of the power to create money. In Switzerland members of the “Vollgeld Initiative” presented the government with enough signatures in December to trigger a national referendum on the subject. Bank deposits, they point out, make up some 87% of the readily available money in Switzerland, vastly exceeding notes and coins. Since money creation is the main fuel of both inflation and growth, they argue, it should not be in private hands, let alone entrusted to institutions that are prone to binge and purge.
Under the existing system deposits sit on private banks’ balance-sheets. Under the proposed alternative (a variation on “narrow banking”), accounts would be transformed into something much closer to the safe-deposit boxes nestled...Continue reading
Source: Business and finance http://ift.tt/1OxloCl
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