Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Why deposit money in the bank when you can print on-demand?

I was thinking, why doesn't it make sense to keep money under our mattresses? That's because it's inconvenient and not safe in the event of house theft. That's one reason we have banks. Since many banks were taken over by governments to survive the crisis, I figured there must be a way to deal with the inconvenience of having banks and the safety issue of keeping all our money with us be it under the mattress, inside it or over it. I mean, if we really wanted to do it, we could. Here's my thinking:

Banks are replaced with print-money government shops. Unlike a normal deposit bank, customers don't deposit money, they only withdraw using a regular ATM card. The print-money government shop won't keep stacks of money in a safe box. It will only print money for the customer who owns it. Its function is to print money on-demand!

That means that if you own $1 million dollars you can go to the print-money shop and get all your $1 million with you. But, you can't deposit it back.

Because you can't deposit it back, people will tend to print-withdraw only the amounts they need to carry their transactions.

The difference with a regular bank is that the customer doesn't have to worry that the bank might lose or run out of money since the only thing available in the government print-money shop will be printers. The printers will be the same kind of machines the FED uses to print money. The only run on the bank can be a manufacturing strike on paper or ink!

For the amount of remaining balance in your account you haven't printed yet, the government will offer you interest on it which will have to be slightly below the rates deposit banks currently charge and definitely below the rates the government borrows in the form of bonds and T-bills from national and international investors.

My proposed architecture will probably revolutionize bank robberies too. The challenge won't be to break into and out of the bank but to forge money. Remember the movie 'Catch me if you can' with Leonardo di Caprio? That's how bank robbers will operate in the new system.

Or if they know you went to the money-print government shop and withdrew all your millions to stash it under your mattress, they might pay you a visit when you're out.

So don't hoard your cash in your house, just print it on-demand! :)

http://www.thinkaloo.com

No comments: