If you pick up an economics textbook you will find a completely wrong description of the banking system. The banks are supposed to take the savings that we send to them and lend our savings to businesses which invest the funds to grow their businesses. Only 15% of the funds received by our largest banks are funneled into corporate investment. The remainder goes into the buying and selling of financial and real estate assets. 80% of those assets are owned by 20% of the population. The major purpose of the large banks is to generate more wealth through financial services.
There is a good reason why the large banks do what they do. Its also the reason why graduates from our top universities seek jobs on Wall Street. The financial industry captures 25% of the corporate profit base with only 4% of the corporate employment base. Small community banks with only 13% of our savings provide most of the lending to small businesses. It also explains why non-financial services corporations are copying their model. Large corporations derive five times the revenue today that they got from financial transactions in the 1980's. Financial engineering has become a much bigger part of their business. Some of the large corporations in Silicon Valley are even underwriting bonds with their unused profits. Our largest banks are the tail wagging the dog.
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