• markon@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Don’t forget Money Center banks like BofA went from 10% fractional reserve (they needed to theoretically have 10% of the amount they were lending) to 0%. That’s just a fancy way of saying they can print money by fiat just like the Fed does. The Fed is weird though because it may as well be owned by the banks as well, but the head of the Fed is appointed by the president.

    There are arguments though that given our somewhat teetering system that they did some “goodish” things to prevent all out collapse. Their actions have not changed anything systemic though, and the system it’s arguably the problem.

    • MxM111@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      I am not quite sure how big the impact of it is on inflation. I thought even before, banks could just go and take cash from federal reserve (borrow), essentially unlimited amount and that counted as reserve. So, from practical point of view, if they saw that they can lend the money with foot risk/benefit profile, they could always do that. And they would not have to pay rate for the money which is in reserve. So, not quite sure if inflation depends on this much.

      • markon@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think this is a reasonable argument. A lot of it seems to just have been companies using inflation as an excuse to raise prices causing more inflation.

        • MxM111@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          Company does not need excuses. It needs explanation for shareholders, to show that they adjust the price to have maximum profits. Nearly no customer will look at the increased price of the product and think “it is expensive, so I can’t afford to buy it, but they have good excuse why it is expensive, so I will buy it anyway”.