
Deutsche Bank fined for $10B Russian money-laundering scheme - kafkaesq
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/31/investing/deutsche-bank-us-fine-russia-money-laundering/index.html
======
wallace_f
If you think about it, banking is pretty crazy.

According to mainstream econ theory: Money is a: (1) medium of exchange; (2)
unit of measure; (3) store of value

If there's any lessons I learned in undergrad econ that I wish the world would
wrap its head around, it's two things:

1 - There's nothing scientific about money and banking which makes it a good
idea for banks to gamble with other people's money. Paul Krugman was very
passionate about this years back--saying he wished banks were run like utility
companies and let hedge funds and ibanks go gamble with their own money--but
he stopped talking about that--though I'm positive he'd still support
fractional reserve banking and low-risk gambling (which are traditional bank
lending services).

2 - though macro- and financial-econ does does use quite a bit of mental
gymnastics, pseudo science, quantitative analysis, and hand waving to attempt
to convince you that central banks and monetary policy are good ideas, the
fact is they're institutions based on the principle of financial alchemy.
Couple that with a history of corruption, secret lending programs and
questionable authority... I have no idea why people tolerate this.

Unfortunately, as crazy as it sounds, these ideas would make me a total
heretic within the field of economics if that were my profession.

Long-winded way of saying that every time I see a banking scandal it doesn't
surprise me: the whole thing is built on an empire of

I mean if you were a benevolent creator of a nation's economy (sim city type
of scenario) you'd want banking to be as efficient (read:small) as possible
while still effectively accomplishing what limited role it does play. On the
other hand, VCs, private investors, hedge funds. etc should be permitted to go
invest their money on their own accord. That might sound like common sense but
it's not what our legislation provides.

------
jti107
gonna be the wild west with even less regulation

