The state of banking and finance today presents a complex labyrinth that even seasoned bankers struggle to navigate. Despite appearances, there is a method to this madness. As Nobel Prize winners like Muhammad Yunus and Joseph Stiglitz have cautioned in the past: central banking, in particular, has morphed to keep the status quo in check. Or, in the words of Mike Maloney, an expert on monetary history and economics: It is “the biggest scam in the history of mankind.” Maloney reasons that giving a small group of unelected individuals the keys to the monetary printing press will undoubtedly rot away the buying power of workers’ savings, for the benefit of the few who benefit from asset price inflation.
In the wake of the global financial crisis and devastating bank runs around the world, individuals and small business owners who simply want to keep the wealth they have earned are increasingly asking: Is my bank working for me, or am I working for my bank? But, until recently, there were simply no alternatives to central bank currencies, nor could anyone provide the services of commercial and investment banks.