ollie989898
Member
If we go back in time my understanding of banks and lending was to have some people who had money in reserve to put that into an account which paid interest whereby that money was lent out in a responsible way to people who wanted to develop their businesses etc in exchange for payment.
That got changed to something called the fractional reserve whereby for every pound the bank had invested or deposited by a customer the bank could lend that money out x 10. So if I put a pound in a bank account the bank could lend out 10 pounds. It then changed again whereby certain borrowings had to have the fractional reserve applied ie overdrafts but loans were exempt from this and banks didn’t have to hold any money deposited. Money printing had been going on throughout this.
In 2016 the fractional reserve was scrapped so the ratio of 1:10 did no longer apply they went onto the pyramid scheme where at the bottom of the triangle there was a layer of money but above that was basically printed money or electronic money which didn’t exist. Money lent out is just sent electronically as numbers on paper. When things look short at the bottom of the pyramid they print more which dilutes what there actually is. Money is made from debt not saving. Inflation erodes savings of cash. Hard to get your head around it. Lending out 10 x what’s invested dilutes it too.
Banks keep balance sheets and their assets are actually loans with interest charges which are put on their sheets as a plus or asset. These can be traded bought and sold for money, which is what caused most of the problem in 2009.
Money has no true value gold, silver ,oil, land has a true value. Look at crypto for example.
Personally I think that the boe and government have been keeping the value of sterling artificially high for the benefit of the financial system or bubble in London and they have kicked that can down the road for too many times now it’s not going much further before trouble appears.
Russia who has added to this problem seemed to know when to strike the western economies. They have a poor set of accounts but low borrowings and lower commitment to social welfare payments. They are rich in land minerals oil coal gas or let’s say energy. They are moving currency values away from artificial things to true values, hence what they are doing moving the dollar away from oil and moving their money in. They know half the American dollars in circulation are printed money probably a lot of the UKs are too.
Russia has an issue. They might have zero debt, a pile of diamonds, gas or oil to sell on the international markets. But A: they are under sanctions. All their money abroad is frozen. B: their currency is worthless. C: it's bad PR to be seen dealing with them. D: all their foreign investment has abandoned the place. They are fudged.
Raw materials/primary economy will only get you so far. You are totally at the mercy of world markets and you can't add any value. What is more there will always be someone out there able to sell it cheaper, either because they are better at it, have cheaper labour or are closer to the end user.
You mention the value of printed dollars- this is immaterial. The value of a dollar is decided by the international FOREX markets, and as much as this place likes to bicker about Uncle Sam, it is a relatively safe and straight forward place to put your money. Why do you think the Chinese are so keen to buy US debt?