All About Banks

What is a bank?

Is it a place to keep your money safe?

Is it a place to get a loan when you need money NOW but don't have enough under the mattress?

Just what is a bank?

I heard once that a bank was supposed to be a place where you put your money so it won't get stolen, or so you won't lose it, where it will be harder to spend it unwisely.

And,

While your money is sitting around in the bank, the good folks there will put it to productive use by lending some of it to others who need to buy something big, like a car, or a house, or a kidney transplant. They'll charge those needy people a goodly but fair vigorish to earn a profit, and give some of it back to you in the form of earned interest on your money.

Seems like a nice place. Good for your money. Good for others. Good for you.

But are there banks like that today? Post-Eco-Meltdown, I am not so sure.

In those institutions still called 'banks', your money seems at risk of being whittled away by service fees which overmatch the pitiful interest the bank pays (o.5% anyone?). And that's before your account gets siphoned by skimmers and identity thieves.

In 'banks' today, you have to earn practically the equivalent of TOP TOP SECRET clearance in order to be squeaky clean enough to get a loan. And even then that loan may not be as much as you really need or come with terms you can really manage.

So, what is a bank?

Right now mine seems like just a database that tracks the numbers that define my economic existence. It's a middle-'man' and a spreadsheet for my purchases and my income, taking a little off the top for its trouble.

That's useful, but not really a 'bank', it seems to me.

Give me a loan and prove me wrong ...