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Automated Banking System
Issue
The banking industry has participated in a number of questionable business practices that has violated the integrity of the financial system.
For example, bankers have gotten involved with derivatives, provided risky loans, and endangered the safety of deposits by investing in unsecured debt. Unconservative lending practices have also caused a number of personal bankruptcies for those who have overextended themselves with excessive debt.
In America, another concern is that the funds for the FDIC program (which reimburses depositors if banks fail) are inadequate for insuring the nation's deposits. Billions of dollars in the insurance program doesn't insure trillions in deposits. By having insufficient funds, the danger of multiple bank failures places the entire financial system at risk.
Solution
Since a nation's monetary system should be as secure and reliable as possible, replacing the multitude of banks that exist today with a single automated bank at the national level would resolve many of these issues.
For example, conservative lending formulas would protect the consolidated system from overextending itself with risky loans. Offering only fixed-rate loans would prevent the risks that are associated with variable-rates that consumers typically overlook.
An automated banking system will also provide better protection for deposits since such funds will never be risked with unsecured debt. The automated bank will also never invest deposits without the owner's consent, which is not practiced today, nor do depositors receive the full benefit of the banker's investment.
The automated bank will also have restrictions on large withdrawals that will ensure the integrity of the system. This alone would have prevented the Silicon Valley Bank failure of 2023, where depositors withdrew $42 billion on a single day that forced the bank to sell investments at a loss.
An automated bank will also provide better management of its interest rates that will auto-adjust depending upon the bank's deposit-to-lending ratio. In the past, the prime interest rate was manually adjusted by the Federal Reserve to control inflation, which had little to do with the amount of capital in the banking system. In the future, inflation will be controlled by a more efficient means than manually adjusting the bank's lending rate (c.f. Inflationary Tax).
A consolidated bank at the national level will also provide greater stability by eliminating the risk of insolvency (e.g., never have to worry that a particular bank will fail since all banks are combined as a single entity). Ensuring that reserves remain in cash and lending never overextended also removes the need for the FDIC program since the banking system would be more secure against default.
The disadvantage of having a consolidated bank at the national level is that it would eliminate competition for better interest rates. However, there isn't much of a variation among banks today since their rates are based on the prime interest rate. The minor benefit of competition providing slightly improved rates isn't worth the risk of a bank (or multiple banks) fail due to an economic crisis. A consolidated bank at the federal level is also non-profit, which will provide efficient rates for all.
An automated bank will also improve on how bankruptcies are handled in that a filing will be more of an extended grace period than the actual forgiveness of debt. This will allow individuals and businesses time to recover from a financial downturn, while not overload the system with unpaid debt obligations. In the past, this has caused banks to increase their fines and penalties to recover against such losses. Conservative lending formulas will also prevent individuals/businesses from overextending themselves in the first place, which will minimize the total number of bankruptcies as well.
Overall, a consolidated automated banking system at the national level will result in a more reliable, stable, and efficient monetary system for the country. By doing so, we will never have to worry about a bank failing ever again.
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